Editor’s letter: Will e-fuels save the internal combustion engine?
Germany and Italy have threatened to derail the EU's internal combustion ban unless e-fuels are exempted
Thought the internal combustion engine was going to be a goner in Europe by 2035? Its saviour may yet come after all.
The noise around e-fuels has become a lot louder in the past few weeks. Most prominent has been the actions of Germany and Italy in the European Parliament, threatening to derail the 2035 legislation unless an exemption for ICEs running on e-fuels is added. Other EU nations are said to be lukewarm to the 2035 ban too, and Germany’s backing for it will be essential.
Whatever the political outcome, the switch to electrification surely remains inevitable. Too many car makers have invested too much money for a complete about turn to be made, and some have already begun to wind down or stop completely investment in ICE technology, with the costly and equally controversial Euro 7 emissions regulations on the horizon. With that in mind, if e-fuels emerge, it’s highly unlikely that they would derail the mass switch to electrification.
What they could do, though, is preserve the high-performance ICE for brands like Ferrari and Aston Martin and offer a cleaner fuel for the remaining car parc, which will still run into the millions – although this is up for debate, given the challenges that e-fuels themselves face concerning their production and other emissions, so consider ‘cleaner’ a relative term against the fuels of today.
Last week, my colleague Richard Lane was in Chile looking at an e-fuels plant that Porsche has invested in and is using as a proof of concept for the technology. As Lane notes, it’s quite a savvy bit of PR: Porsche gets the warm glow from petrolheads in showing how they take finding a way to keep the ICE living on while still confronting environmental concerns.
His trip also revealed that the technology is some time away from large-scale introduction, although he suggests that were it not for Porsche’s very public involvement in the project (which amounts to a 12% stake), few outside the automotive industry would be talking about e-fuels at all. Indeed, he discovered that, as it stands, e-fuels are more likely to end up in aviation and shipping.
Still, if political intervention ensures that momentum starts to build behind e-fuels, the time for it may well come. While it has appeal at the top of the market, it also has appeal at the other end of the market as a way of ensuring that smaller new cars can remain affordable.
Dacia boss Denis Le Vot is particularly concerned about the cost of electrification and wants to prioritise “affordable decarbonisation” of cars, such as with Dacia’s continued support and used of LPG as a fuel.
His eyes lit up when I asked him this week about the political developments around e-fuels; he said it “puts the question on the table in a holistic way” and that he would be “watching carefully all the developments with e-fuels”.
As will we all.