Since the European Commission opened the door to accept that combustion engine vehicles could continue to be registered from the year 2035 if they used e-fuels or synthetic fuels, the controversy is more than served. The European authorities made this decision, which still needs to be approved by the European Parliament and Council, at the end of March due to pressure from Germany and, to a lesser extent, from other countries, such as Poland and Italy.
A few days later, the Spanish Association of Petroleum Product Operators (AOP) was already asking for "regulatory certainty" so that these fuels, considered net of carbon emissions, can reach a competitive price, similar to those of current fossil fuels. More recently, the car manufacturer Stellantis (with brands such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Jeep, Chrysler, Peugeot, Citroën or Opel) has announced that they are testing the use of e-fuels in a total of 28 types of internal combustion engines.
“It is nothing more than an attempt to extend the life of the production of combustion engines and all the associated jobs. A way to delay the pain”, warns Mar Reguant, professor of Economics at Northwestern University (USA) and at the Barcelona School Economics. Reguant is clear that the future of the automotive sector involves electrification.
According to the experts consulted, the manufacturers who are now temporarily betting on these synthetic fuels also know this. “The industry is not betting massively on e-fuels because there are still many uncertainties around these fuels: today they are inefficient and expensive to produce and the sector itself has already said that they will not be a commercial reality until 2025. ”, explains Carlos Rico, of the European Federation of Transport and Environment (Transport and Environment). This organization affirms that the average cost of filling a tank with this type of fuel could reach 210 euros, standing at 2.8 euros per liter by 2030, while electric vehicles are already competitive compared to those with combustion engines. .
"The manufacturers that are betting the most on e-fuels are those of luxury vehicles, led by Porsche," says Rico. "In this case, the higher costs of synthetic fuels are not a problem," adds the expert. In early 2022, Porsche invested $75 million in HIF Global LLC, a group of companies developing international projects to install synthetic fuel production plants.
Among those projects is the Haru Oni pilot plant, in Punta Arenas (Chile), initiated by Porsche and implemented with Siemens Energy and ExxonMobil, among other partners. Porsche is committed to e-fuels, but does not neglect electric vehicles. Neither did Stellantis. Both companies are, at the same time, electrifying their models, aware that in the long run the future of mobility in Europe will be electric.
"E-fuels do not make sense for cars because electricity is 60% efficient, while fuels do not reach 20% in the best of cases," says Nina Carretero, a researcher at the Institut de Recerca en Energy of Catalonia (Irec). "It does make sense in those transports that cannot be electrified, such as air or sea," adds the scientist.
Synthetic fuels are obtained by mixing carbon dioxide (CO₂) already emitted with hydrogen generated from renewable energy. They are considered carbon neutral because the CO₂ they emit had already been emitted previously.
