‘Fake petrol’ to be as good for the environment as the real thing says Porsche

Momentum and interest continues to build in Porsche’s synthetic fuels that it’s currently developing, with a bigwig at the iconic performance car firm saying that it has the potential to be just as environmentally friendly as electric cars are on a ‘well to wheel’ basis.

“Emissions are way better than current pump fuel, with less particulates and less NOx produced,” Frank Walliser, Porsche’s vice president of motorsports and GT cars, told UK publication Evo Magazine.

“From a ‘well to wheel’ perspective – and you have to consider the well to wheel impact of all vehicles – this will be the same level of CO2 produced in the manufacture and use of an electric vehicle.”

While the production of electric cars and their vehicles continues to be mired in misinformation, there’s still plenty of work to do to make production greener. Polestar’s internal 2020 study revealed that its electric cars only overtook its petrol cars for CO2 emissions produced on a ‘well to wheel’ basis after they had travelled 30,000 miles (48,280km).

Porsche’s synthetic fuel is made by combining carbon and hydrogen to create methanol, with the firm aiming to produce said fuel in factories powered by wind and solar energy.

Last week Porsche announced that it would take the next step in the development of its fuel in 2022, with hopes of selling it in the market by 2024 with the help of a newly acquired production plant, and the help of a raft of companies including Siemens and AME.

Porsche has already confirmed that some 70 per cent of the cars it’s built will be able to run on the fuel — presumably either the oldest creations or most high-performance creations missing out in the process.

“The general idea behind these synthetic fuels is that there is no change to the engine necessary, unlike what we have seen with E10 and E20, so really, everybody can use it, and we are testing with the regular specs of pump fuel,” Walliser said in an earlier interview with Autocar UK.

“It has no impact on performance – some horses more, so it’s going in the right direction – but emissions are way better; we see less particles, less NOx – so that’s going in the right direction.”