Electric vehicles (Bidenmobiles) are all the rage these days as government mandates fuel their expansion despite market forces pushing back on them.
But true car enthusiasts and some automakers are anxious to keep the combustion engine alive.
And automaker Stellantis is working to keep combustion engines alive with these e-fuel experiments.
Most of the world’s automakers are racing to see who can switch over to Bidenmobiles the quickest.
A better option
But there are other options emerging that are far better than the troubled and expensive Bidenmobiles.
One such option is hydrogen-fueled vehicles and a number of leading manufacturers are developing those fuels.
But so far, hydrogen fuels are simply too expensive and too difficult to produce.
Another, more promising option is that of synthetic fuels, also known as e-fuels.
In fact, these fuels are exempted from the upcoming European ban on combustion engines slated for 2035.
And multinational automaker Stellantis is the latest automaker to explore synthetic fuels in its vehicles.
Stellantis is the owner of such iconic brands as Fiat, Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Jeep, Maserati, Mopar, Peugeot, and Alfa Romeo.
So the European-based automaker is well aware of their customers’ hatred of Bidenmobiles.
And the huge automaker recently announced it had begun testing e-fuels in 28 different engines across its brands.
The goal, they say, is to help speed up the reduction in carbon emissions through synthetic fuels.
These e-fuels are made by recapturing carbon emissions already present in the atmosphere and processing it into a renewable fuel source.
Saving the combustion engines
Stellantis has built approximately 28 million motors across the various engine families for its 14 different brands.
It is testing all of the different engine families with synthetic fuels.
And the automaker’s current e-fuel tests, which are in the final stages for gasoline and diesel-powered engines are meant to measure important details like power, reliability, and tailpipe emissions.
Stellantis says by investing in e-fuels, it is hoping to ensure their customers with existing gasoline-powered vehicles will have an affordable option to “decarbonize” their vehicles without having to make expensive upgrades to the fuel system.
They also hope to capitalize on the e-fuels to allow customers to avoid having to rely on the unreliable and overwhelmed Bidenmobile charging infrastructure.
And of course, if it all works as the tests seem to indicate, car owners won’t even have to replace their existing vehicle with a new or used electric car.
While Stellantis says they are still aiming to only sell battery-powered electric cars across all of its brands by the end of the decade, it is well known that Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares is not fully onboard with that idea.
And while he has begrudgingly committed to bringing all of the company’s brands into compliance with worldwide regulations, he is looking to find other options to EV-only programs.
Tavares said, “While we remain steadfast in executing our aggressive electrification strategy, we must also find smart alternatives to address the CO2 emissions for the 1.3 billion existing ICE cars. By working to make sure our Stellantis engines are eFuels friendly, we are aiming at giving our customers another tool in the fight against global warming and one that can have an almost immediate impact.”
E-fuels have been fairly polarizing across the auto industry.
Some who have invested fully in Bidenmobiles are not happy about the e-fuel possibilities.
Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schafer, called e-fuels “unnecessary noise” and “old technology.”
But Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, has been a large proponent of e-fuels.
Blume helped the automaker make a $75 million investment in e-fuels just last year.
One thing is for sure, for real car aficionados, Bidenmobiles just won’t cut it, and synthetic fuels are the best option in a world gone green.
