“The path is clear: Europe remains technologically neutral”, rejoiced in a tweet Saturday, March 25, the German Transport Minister, Volker Wissing, to comment on the agreement reached between Berlin and the European Commission on the issue of heat engines, which had been pending for several weeks due to the blocking of Germany.
The EU has finally approved the switch to 100 engines % electric in Europe following 2035… with one exception : new vehicles may continue to be equipped with combustion engines if they use “neutral fuels in terms of CO2 emissions2“, in the words of Volker Wissing.
A way for Berlin to obtain satisfaction on the subject of synthetic fuels (or e-fuels). The latter are produced without petroleum unlike gasoline, kerosene or diesel but from CO2 and low-carbon electricity, as defined by the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies.
“The idea is to have ‘sustainable fuels’, i.e. products that will continue to emit CO2 but which, in the total cycle, will have fewer emissions than cars powered by oil”, explains Thierry Bros, professor at Sciences Po and specialist in energy issues.
“Attractive on paper” fuels
These synthetic fuels, still under development, have several advantages: they have the same properties as gasoline or diesel and they can be used without having to modify the engine of a vehicle – unlike electric vehicles which require modifications. technologies.
This ease of adaptation to internal combustion engines partly explains the interest that several automobile manufacturers have for the development of these e-fuels. Porsche in the lead. The Volkswagen subsidiary is developing a major project in Chile with Siemens, for which it has invested 100 million euros. Hydrogen is produced there using electricity from wind turbines and, recombined with CO2 taken from the atmosphere, this hydrogen is transformed into liquid synthetic fuel that can be stored and transported.
The two manufacturers anticipate a production of 130,000 liters of synthetic gasoline by the end of 202255 million liters in 2024 and 550 million liters in 2026. A drop of water compared to the more than 2,400 billion liters of oil (2.1 Gtoe) consumed worldwide in the road transport sector in 2021, according to the French Petroleum Institute New Energies.
“E-fuels are attractive on paper, but in reality they are not a mature technology,” explains Nicolas Goldberg, energy expert at Colombus Consulting. “There are several energy-inefficient operations : it is necessary to produce hydrogen and recombine it with CO2. It has no large-scale interest for individual vehicles. It is mainly the luxury car manufacturers who are pushing in the direction of synthetic fuels.
In addition, several lobbies in Europe are campaigning in favor of these e-fuels : the Concawe, Ufip Energies and Mobilities… or the eFuel Alliance. This industrial pressure group includes major German automotive suppliers (Bosch, ZF, Mahle) as well as major oil and gas companies (ExxonMobil to Repsol).
After the EU-Germany agreement on thermal engines, the director of the eFuel Alliance, Ralf Diemer, was also “delighted” with this compromise in a press release : “By sticking consistently and persistently to technological openness, the FDP (the liberal party of the German government coalition which worked to obtain this European concession, editor’s note) has opened a door which should make it possible in the long run term the use of climate-friendly e-fuels for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.”
“Trojan horse” of the automotive industry ?
Climate-friendly e-fuels… with certain limits. Although carbon neutral, synthetic fuels still emit nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carcinogenic particles, underlines the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E).
According to T&E, these e-fuels “also constitute a much less ecological solution for cars than battery-electric cars”. And give this figure : by 2030, an electric car will emit 53 % of CO2 less over its entire life cycle than a car running on synthetic fuels.
The NGO also claims that in 2035, “the production of e-fuels will only be in its infancy: only five million cars, out of the 287 million that should have the EU car fleet, might run on synthetic fuel.” Finally, she believes that e-fuels are a “Trojan horse” of the automotive industry to extend the life of combustion engines and that this risks delaying investments in the electrification of the vehicle fleet.
Nicolas Goldberg also sees in this agreement between the European Commission and Germany a “bad signal” sent to the European automotive industry : “This opens a gap. We say to the automotive industry ‘you can continue to produce thermal vehicles compatible with synthetic fuels’, but they will not necessarily be filled to 100 % of e-fuels.” A mixture of synthetic fuel with a fossil fuel (gasoline or diesel) would, for example, be theoretically possible.
Without being able to convince over time in the automotive sector, synthetic fuels might, however, serve in the air or in the sea. As for the transition to all-electric in Europe from 2035, concludes Nicolas Goldberg, “it is a unique opportunity to rethink the use of vehicles in our way of life.”
