The German Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, is committed to climate-neutral fuels, so-called e-fuels, in the long term. “There is no alternative to e-fuels,” said the politician on Monday in Munich at an industry conference on the sidelines of the IAA motor show.
In Austria, the automotive suppliers and at the political level ÖVP and FPÖ want to rely on these fuels, which, however, still need to be further developed. Otherwise, combustion cars would be sold abroad after 2035 and operated there with fossil fuels, argued the liberal transport minister of the car-producing country Germany. “If you want to achieve climate protection goals, you can’t do without e-fuels.” This also applies to shipping and air transport. Above all, e-fuels must become available, which is still a problem. “The state has to help with international certification and standards,” said Wissing. Restricting their use by the state makes no sense. The companies would have to decide whether an assignment makes sense. In principle, however, every opportunity to reduce CO2 in traffic must be used. The decisive factor is the production location Synthetic fuels are not produced in Germany, but in places where there is an abundance of renewable energy, for example in Morocco. As agreed, the EU Commission should regulate that only e-fuel-capable vehicles can be registered in the EU from 2035. The aim is for the synthetic fuels, which have so far only been 70 percent climate-neutral, to be 100 percent climate-neutral by then electric cars. The Ministry of Finance will present a draft law in autumn. E-fuels are produced from water using large quantities of green electricity and CO2 from the atmosphere. The burners are therefore climate-neutral, although they emit CO2. Opponents reject e-fuels because their production requires a lot of energy and is expensive. Proponents, however, predict progress in the next few years and, above all, see the advantage that energy can be used that would otherwise not be available. So far there is no noteworthy production. These fuels are later to be used primarily in shipping and air traffic, which is even more difficult to convert to electricity than it is for car traffic.
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