The European Commission has drawn up a plan under which after 2035 car manufacturers will be able to sell cars with internal combustion engines, but on the condition that these cars can only be fueled with “e-fuel”, a synthetic fuel whose balance is CO2 neutral. The information is provided by the Reuters agency, and EU officials want to resolve the dispute they have with Germany.

The proposal would be to create a new category of vehicles in the EU, cars that can only run on “carbon neutral” fuel. These vehicles must also have systems that will NOT allow them to start if another type of fuel is used, such as gasoline or standard diesel.

If the proposal is accepted, it would mean that new cars with internal combustion engines could be sold after 2035, something that several countries with significant car industries want.

Electric fuel or “e-fuel” burns like petroleum-based gasoline, but without greenhouse gas emissions. An example of an electronic fuel is synthetic methanol, a gasoline produced using green hydrogen obtained from renewable energy.

Such fuels are not produced in large quantities, and a recent study found that the projected global production of “electrofuels” would cover a very small fraction of demand. In order for these cars with “e-fuel” to become many, large investment projects worth billions of euros are needed. The bright side is that 2035 is still 12 years away.

Synthetic fuel can be obtained from coal, methane or biomass by various methods.

There is a strong lobby group that supports “e-fuel”, the idea being that combustion engine cars can still be produced after 2035, albeit in smaller volumes and in this electric fuel variant.

Porsche is building a clean synthetic fuel plant in Chile with Siemens Energy, as well as other projects.

Source: Dreamstime.com