Fuels of the future: decide, not procrastinate (Edito)

Today, we are replaying the serenade. To save the piston engine, threatened by the ugly electric transmission, some minds dangle the alternative of synthetic fuels. Recycling a technology that the German army, devoid of oil resources, was already using to advance its troops in 1940. What is new is that this fuel would no longer be made from coal, but from CO2, a solution “magic” to climate challenges. This is to forget that by burning in an engine, this carbon is found in the open air, with its share of polluting emissions, NOx or others. The electric car has at least the merit of not rotting the surrounding air.

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In addition, synthetic fuel is expensive to produce. At the pump, we will pay more for it than gasoline and diesel which, whatever the case, will continue to supply the mass of cars put into circulation before 2035. It is the cities that will hunt them, not the European laws. And then, making e-fuel is very energy intensive in terms of electricity. Yes, this same electricity which we are told that, renewable or not, it will be insufficient to power electric motors with yet higher performance.

READ ALSO | What’s the point of removing the piston engine?

One thing is obvious, as China has understood: the countries that will take the lead in electric technologies will be those that will dominate the future of our transport. To resist is to waste both time and the means to invest.