E-fuel for thought

Following on from your comments about Bentley’s plans to support internal combustion engined cars post 2030 (Ed Speak, evo 285), there is another area to consider.

There are over 300million ICE vehicles in Europe at present, quite a number to replace. The question is what should they be replaced with to reduce CO2. The answer isn’t as straightforward as might be thought. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Imeche) has identified that in the C-segment the vehicle that has the lowest wholelife CO2 (not just CO2 at the point of use) is a gasoline engine vehicle using e-gasoline produced using 100 per cent renewable energy (the analysis includes BEV).

It must also be noted that, disappointingly, research into internal combustion engines has reduced as a result of the looming ban on this technology. Even worse, there is potential to leverage greater ICE efficiency with e-fuels due to

the higher octane number that can be facilitated.

Thank goodness the leadership of Porsche and Bentley has the wisdom to champion these fuels. They now need to be developed for mainstream use, so that we can all be trusted to make the correct technology choices and express our powertrain purchasing preferences. Being incentivised and encouraged to move in a particular direction when that particular direction is not the lowest overall CO2 option is somewhat less than optimal, and outright banning the lowest CO2 option is illogical. Steve Rawson