With Air Quality Indices rising around the world, the government’s are pushing a ban on all internal combustion engine vehicles that may come into force by the end of this decade. Electric power is set to replace internal combustion engines and many manufacturers in anticipation of the ban have already started developing electric powertrains to power their vehicles when the new norms come into action. Porsche, however, is developing a new synthetic fuel which they call eFuel because this synthetic fuel can replace conventional gasoline and have benefits similar to electric vehicles.
Well, the composition is a secret for obvious reasons, but Porsche claims that their synthetic fuel has only 8-10 components whereas petrol has 30 – 40 undesirable components. This reduces CO2 emissions by 85% and NOx particulates by a significant amount. The CO2 emissions with the eFuel powered internal combustion engine car will have the same amount of CO2 output as the electric vehicle, considering the ‘Well to Wheel’ perspective. This means the amount of CO2 produced in the manufacture of electric vehicles will be similar to the impact on the environment with Porsche’s eFuel.
Porsche will start trials of the new synthetic fuel by 2022 and the eFuel can power all Porsche cars without having to modify the engine. This will enable older Porsche cars to stay on the road as the eFuel also works with older generation engines as well as latest Porsche cars such as the 2022 992-generation 911 GT3. The brand will be developing 130,000 litres of eFuel by 2022 and initially Porsche only plans to use the synthetic fuel in motorsports and driving experience centres.
While eFuel offers benefits such as cleaner tailpipe emissions, that are nearly par with electric vehicles, old vehicles need not go to the scrap yard to make way for newer electric vehicles reducing emissions from manufacturing and long ques at your favourite fast charger. But with skyrocketing conventional fuel cost that have reached INR 100 per litre in certain metrocities of India, the availability and cost of the synthetic fuel is a key player in it adoption.