Porsche, which is one of the most active manufacturers in the research and even the distribution of synthetic fuels, recognizes that today this type of energy does not have much chance of seeing the light of day, especially without aid governments.
In 2035, manufacturers will be banned from selling new thermal cars in Europe. The text was adopted by the European Parliament and the European Commission. The way is therefore royal today for the electric carand virtually all manufacturers have now begun their energy transition.
Nevertheless, some are wondering about alternatives, like Toyota for example. Even if the future seems promised only to the electric car, several solutions point the tip of their nose, but are not yet mature enough to register in the short term as an alternative choice to electric.
Hydrogen, for example, is of interest to many players in the automotive world, but, for the moment, the development of this technology remains very superficial, in particular because of the development costs much higher than those of an electric car, not to mention all the inconveniences that entails.
What is synthetic fuel?
Among the other alternatives, there is also synthetic fuel (or also called ” e-fuel ”), synthetic fuels produced from water through a series of chemical processes. These are artificially produced fuels through the use of ” Power-to-X from a common base: water.
Through a chemical process of electrolysis triggered by the use of electricity generated from renewable sources (if this is not the case there would be no environmental benefits), the water is divided into oxygen and green hydrogen. E-fuels are produced without petroleum or biomass, but from CO2 and low-carbon electricity.
The advantage of these e-fuels is that they can be used for a conventional thermal car. On the other hand, e-fuel does not in any way reduce pollutant emissions at the exhaust, such as those of nitrogen oxides (NOx) or fine particles. The interest, it is therefore to reduce polluting emissions during the manufacturing process.
What future for synthetic fuel?
Porsche is one of the most active and has launched a pilot project with Siemens Energy to build a synthetic fuel production plant in Chile, which is expected to produce up to 550 million liters of fuel by 2026. Initially , this fuel will only be used to power the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the Supercup, one of the many one-make championships organized by the manufacturer.
But only at first, and it should not go beyond that. Indeed, as acknowledged by Barbara Frenkel, the purchasing director of Porsche “the fuel we make is far too expensive for us to use”while specifying that without state aid, these alternatives would have no future on a larger scale.
Currently, it is possible to buy synthetic fuel marketed by the company Zero Petroelum, sold… 56 euros per litre! To be compared to petrol, which is around 2 euros per litre.
The idea for Porsche would be to tax fossil fuels more harshly, and at the same time exempt synthetic fuels. By this manipulation, these fuels could find themselves on the same footing of equality. The project still needs to be strong enough to be included in the European review clause to integrate this solution after 2035.
Overall, this energy should be confined to competitive use and not go beyond that. Porsche is also quite realistic on this subject, since the manufacturer thinks that it will only be a simple alternative to all-electric. And with the objective of selling 80% of electric cars by 2030, Porsche would not have much interest in continuing headlong down this path.
It is now official, in Europe, new thermal cars will be banned from sale in 2035. The electric car will have already taken the lead by then, but other alternatives may have emerged by then. And,…
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