Porsche has said goodbye to diesel technology and instead turned to partially and fully electric drives, the Volkswagen subsidiary is investing here Billions. However, you can’t get ahead fast enough with electricity alone. That’s why Porsche doesn’t want to say goodbye to the combustion engine entirely, emphasizes Head of Development Michael Steiner. In order to make gasoline and hybrid cars more environmentally friendly, the manufacturer is researching synthetic fuels.
The company wants to “significantly advance” the development of synthetic fuels – so-called eFuels – in the future. The main reason why the technology is so important is that the combustion engine will dominate the automotive world for many years to come. “If you want to operate the existing fleet sustainably in the long term, then eFuels are an elementary component,” says Steiner.
eFuels are generated from CO2 and hydrogen using regenerative energy. In terms of their basic properties, they do not differ from kerosene, diesel or petrol made from petroleum. Ideally, however, they are a climate-neutral fuel. “We have a team that is looking for suitable partners who can build pilot plants with us and who want to prove that the entire process chain works and can be industrialized,” says Steiner. You want to help shape this chain, but you don’t want to define it down to the smallest detail.
With the Taycan Porsche introduced its first electric car at the end of last year, Further should follow. In addition, many models are now available as hybrid versions – but according to Steiner, that is not enough: “Electromobility is an absolutely inspiring and convincing technology. But taken on its own, it takes us less quickly towards sustainability than we want to. ”That is why Porsche is also involved in the topic of eFuels, also with a view to possible applications in motorsport.
Porsche wants to sell half of all vehicles with e-drives by 2025, but the existing fleet is large. “Our cars are driven for a very, very long time,” notes Steiner. And the hybrid vehicles would also be powered electrically on short journeys, but also by a combustion engine on long journeys. Porsche is not thinking about taking the pure combustion engine out of the program and relying only on hybrids and electric cars. “We are convinced that these three drive technologies will survive on the market in the medium term,” emphasizes Steiner. The fuel cell for hydrogen-powered electric vehicles, on the other hand, is not an issue for the sports car manufacturer.
Steiner admits that it is far more efficient to simply charge an electric car with regenerative energy directly on the spot than to use it to produce a synthetic fuel in a complex process, but says: “If we, as humanity, can do it worldwide If we use existing regenerative energy in excess, we can prioritize sustainability higher than efficiency. “
However, the use of eFuels would currently not help with the CO2 fleet values. “For us it would actually not be counted in the vehicle fleet here and now,” says Steiner. “But there are countries like Switzerland that are acting in this direction.” The Porsche manager believes it is wrong to wait for new legal requirements first: “If we all always wait until all regulatory issues have been dealt with, and only then start developing, it’s too late. “
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