Renewable e-fuels give internal combustion engines stay of execution in Europe after legislation amendment
Will the UK follow suit?
The European Union is planning to enforce a bloc-wide ban on the sale of new internal combustion-engined cars from 2035 onwards, but the German government threatened to block such a move to protect its lucrative car industry. Now it looks as if an agreement has been made, and the EU’s legislation will exempt models that are able to run exclusively on e-fuels.
E-fuels are synthetic alternatives to petrol that are produced by using captured carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen, preferably sourced from renewable electricity sources. They are touted as a sustainable alternative to traditional fossil fuels, with a potential carbon neutral environmental footprint, and it’s a technology that is being actively pursued by car manufacturers such as Porsche and Audi.
UK firm Zero — founded by ex-Formula One engineer Paddy Lowe — is also developing e-fuels for cars, agriculture and aircraft.
The original EU proposal would have seen a wholesale ban on the sale of new combustion-engined cars from 2035 onwards, but Berlin threatened to block the plan to help protect the German car industry, which accounts for almost 10 per cent of the country’s economy.
Now that an exemption for e-fuels has been incorporated into the proposal, it looks as if a way forward has been found.
In a tweet over the weekend, the EU’s climate commissioner, Frans Timmermans, said that the European Commission had “found an agreement” with the German government over the situation after almost a month of negotiations to save the EU proposal.
Earlier in March, German transport minister Volker Wissing announced that his government would block the legislation to phase out internal combustion engines (ICE) in the EU. This came just days before the new proposal was due to have a final vote in Brussels.
However, now that exemptions for e-fuels have been added, he said: “This clears the way for vehicles with internal combustion engines that run on CO2-neutral fuels only to be newly registered after 2035.”
With the car industry being an important part of Germany’s economy, its government had concerns about the impact the ICE ban would have on the nation’s finances. According to research from a variety of sources, the switch to electric vehicles could have an impact on hundreds of thousands of jobs over the coming decades, because these systems use fewer parts than combustion engines. This will affect research and development, as well as servicing and maintenance.
Other experts see the switch to electric vehicles as an opportunity long-term, as new industries emerge around research, technology and battery production.
According to Wissing, the EU has already agreed to a timetable that will see the new exemption included in the legislation. A separate category for cars running exclusively on e-fuels will be added, and Wissing expected this to be completed “by autumn 2024”.
An EU official confirmed that a new announcement on the ICE ban would be made on March 28, when EU energy ministers would approve the motion.
Opposition from green groups
However, while Germany has been able to fit in the e-fuel amendment, not everybody is happy. Green groups have heavily criticised the German move to give e-fuels an exemption, while car manufacturers including Ford and Volvo have also said that the industry had already invested heavily in electric vehicles, viewing the move as a backwards step.
Greenpeace spokesman Benjamin Stephan said the deal was a setback for climate protection. “This stinky compromise undermines climate protection in transport, and it harms Europe,” he said. It dilutes the need for the auto industry to focus on efficient electromobility, he added.
A spokesperson for Transport & Environment, a green lobby group, said: “E-fuels are an expensive and massively inefficient diversion from the transformation to electric facing Europe’s car makers. Europe needs to move forward and give clarity to its automotive industry which is in a race with the US and China.
“For the sake of Europe’s climate credibility, the 2035 zero-emissions cars deal needs to enter law without any further delay.”
The 2035 ICE ban was originally established in 2022, and it’s usually quite rare for proposals such as this to be re-opened. However, while the e-fuel exception has been added, the overall legislation remains unchanged.
One issue for the policymakers is that any new vehicles allowed to run on e-fuels will need to be adapted so that they cannot run on fossil fuels as well.
The UK set a more ambitious target of 2030 for its ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars, with hybrids also outlawed from 2035. It’s unclear whether policymakers will seek similar amendments to legislation allow sales of new e-fuel compatible vehicles to continue after those dates.
E-fuels not a silver bullet
Early research suggests that one of the major disadvantages of synthetic e-fuels is its potential costs, with each litre up to five times the price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the average forecourt at present. Owners of classics and other special vehicles are unlikely to baulk at a high cost for the fuel if it means that they can still drive their cars if petrol and diesel disappear from filling stations, but it’s not likely that the average motorist would feel the same way.
Opponents of e-fuels also say that the renewable energy used to create the e-fuels would be better directed into electric vehicle battery packs, rather than used to create a new liquid fuel.
And though e-fuels themselves have been designed to be carbon neutral, burning of them in an internal combustion engine still results in the emission of other harmful pollutants on a local level.
What’s more, existing plans for scaling up production of e-fuels would only cover a tiny percentage of the ICE vehicles on the road.
Related articles
- After reading about the EU’s u-turn on e-fuels, you may be interested in reading our detailed guide to e-fuels
- DId you hear that Porsche has already opened its e-fuel factory in Chile?
- Take a look at all the carmakers’ electric vehicle plans
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