Why Cars Running on E-Fuel Can’t Replace EVs

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March 9, 2023

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by Justine Calma (The Verge) E-fuel will probably be too expensive and inefficient for cars, but it just might work for planes. — Porsche showed off a new pilot plant in Patagonia, Chile, last month — not one that manufactures cars but, rather, one that makes e-fuel, a synthetic alternative to conventional gasoline made from air and water using electricity. The plant, a joint project with ExxonMobil and other energy companies, “is a symbol of hope in the fight against climate change, for a more sustainable future – and one that might also feature the music of a Porsche engine,” Porsche boasts in a February 14th press release.

The dream that car companies like Porsche are selling with e-fuel is that drivers can keep their internal combustion engines and fight climate change at the same time. All they have to do is switch to e-fuel.

The reality is that, when it comes to cleaning up climate pollution from road transport, e-fuel is no silver bullet. It’s way too expensive and inefficient to displace electric vehicles. And it still releases planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions when burned.

Despite those shortcomings, e-fuel managed to derail or at least delay the EU’s plan to effectively ban sales of combustion engine cars by 2035. The climate policy was nearly a done deal, with a final vote into law expected yesterday. Germany threw a last-minute curveball, withdrawing its support for the policy unless it allows traditional cars to stay on the road as long as they run on e-fuel.

A vehicle’s gas tank can be filled with synthetic e-fuel just like gasoline. Running on e-fuel produces tailpipe pollution like gasoline, too. But e-fuel can be made with renewable energy, which is behind the climate argument for it. And the carbon dioxide emissions it generates can potentially be canceled out during the process of making the fuel, making it nearly carbon neutral.

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The challenge is that the process uses up a lot of energy. And the technologies it relies on — carbon removal facilities and electrolyzers to split water molecules — are still prohibitively expensive.

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Close to 50 percent of the energy input is lost in the process of turning that electricity into hydrogen and then turning that hydrogen into e-fuel, according to nonprofit research group the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

Because of that inefficiency, a car running on e-fuel burns through significantly more electricity than an EV would use to go the same distance.

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But battery technology is still too heavy for planes, which will most likely need to rely primarily on alternative fuels to take off in a less polluting way. READ MORE

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