Porsche’s Synthetic eFuel: Could this be the best alternative to fossil fuels?

INTRODUCTION:

There is no denying fact that Electric Vehicles are the future of mobility. Off late, companies are jumping on the bandwagon for example, Jaguar has affirmed that they would become a carbon neutral company by 2039, Volvo has said that their entire cars will be electric by 2030, Mercedes also has electric counterparts of their regular cars and also upcoming AMG cars will have hybrid power . This implies the life of the internal combustion engine is numbered. Enter Porsche’s Synthetic eFuel. Could this be a game changer? Read to find out.

PORSCHE’S SYNTHETIC eFUEL : A DEEP DIVE.

In an era where every company is racing towards greener mobility, Electrical Vehicles has gotten significant traction over the few years. But there is one solid fact that, majority of the cars that are in the road are still powered by fossil fuels like petrol,diesel etc and they will continue to exist for a foreseeable future. In order to make vehicles equipped with internal combustion engine to be more sustainable, Porsche has started researching on synthetic fuel which Porsche calls it the eFuels .

Porsche’s eFuels are made from carbon dioxide and hydrogen using renewable energy. In terms of properties, they are no different than fossil fuels like petrol, diesel or kerosene.They have collaborated with Siemens Energy and other energy partners to make it a reality. The pilot plant in which this fuel is produced is called the Haru Oni Pilot Plant located in  Magallanes Province in Southern Chile owing to the excellent wind conditions,a perfect recipe for making a climate-neutral fuel. One of the biggest advantage of eFuel is that, one can pump it into a standard gasoline powered vehicle and and make use of the existing network . Porsche is aiming to make 130000 litres of eFuel by 2022. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car will be able to run on the synthetic fuel.

Porsche is not the really the first company to talk about alternative fuels. In fact, companies like Audi, McLaren, Bentley and Mazda have all spoken about alternative fuels in the past. Audi commissioned a batch of e-diesel powered cars back in 2015. What remains a million dollar question is the cost of it and the availability of the fuel. Well we have to wait.