That’s what the argument about synthetic fuels is all about

Then, with a few exceptions, only cars that do not emit any CO2 when driving will be allowed to be newly registered. This would ban the internal combustion engine. Some car manufacturers, suppliers and companies that want to produce e-fuels are fighting back.

Can the ban still be stopped?

The European Parliament already approved the proposal in mid-February. The FDP deputies, like the CDU and CSU, voted against it. She did not yet announce that the FDP would also withdraw her consent within the federal government.

Now it is up to the second legislator in the EU: the Council of the European Union, in which the governments of the member states are represented. He can accept the bill or send it back to Parliament with amendments. What would then become of the law would be unclear.

So far the official path of legislation. In fact, the Council, Parliament and Commission have long since agreed to accept the proposal in its current form. Germany also agreed. That’s why the preliminary vote this Wednesday and the final vote next Tuesday were actually considered a matter of form.

Two countries, Poland and Bulgaria, announced well in advance that they would not agree. The fact that Germany and Italy are now withdrawing their approval at short notice is very unusual. The preliminary vote has now been postponed to Friday; according to the Council Presidency, the final vote is to take place on Tuesday.

What does the FDP demand?

Under pressure from the Liberals, the following non-binding passage was inserted into the draft law: “After consultation with stakeholders, the Commission will make a proposal for the registration after 2035 of vehicles running exclusively on CO2-neutral fuels, in accordance with EU Law, outside the scope of the fleet limits and in line with the EU goal of climate neutrality.

The Greens understand this to mean special vehicles such as ambulances and fire engines (because these are outside the scope of the fleet limits). The FDP, on the other hand, wants the EU to allow normal combustion cars.

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The EU Commission has not yet submitted the requested proposal. The FDP criticizes this. It is unclear how it will then be proven that cars “drive exclusively with CO2-neutral fuels”. Special filler necks that only fit special taps, from which e-fuels would then be filled, would be conceivable.

Are e-fuels climate-neutral?

Theoretically they can be. E-fuels (English: electrofuels) are synthetic fuels that can be used to operate an internal combustion engine. They are made from water and carbon dioxide (CO2) using electricity. This process is called “Power-to-X”. “Power” stands for electricity, the “X” either for petrol, diesel or kerosene.

E-gasoline, E-diesel or E-kerosene could be used as fuel in today’s engines. In principle, their combustion generates just as many environmentally harmful exhaust gases as conventional fuels.

However, if the electricity for production comes entirely from renewable sources and the necessary CO2 also comes from the atmosphere, biomass or industrial exhaust gases, i.e. is already available, their use would be climate-neutral.

What do climate protectors have against e-fuels?

In the production of electric-based fuels, several energy-guzzling conversion stages have to be passed through; Large amounts of electricity are required, especially for the production of hydrogen. In addition, the combustion engines convert only around a third of the energy from the e-fuels into motion. Incidentally, this is the same for petrol and diesel cars. Overall, the energy balance of combustion cars is therefore significantly worse than that of electric cars.

According to the think tank Agora Energiewende, synthetic fuels achieve an efficiency of around 13 percent: So only 13 percent of the electrical energy used in production moves the vehicle. For e-cars it is 69 percent. In other words, cars fueled with e-fuels use almost five times as much energy per kilometer as a battery car. This also offsets the disadvantage of the energy-intensive production of the electric car battery.

What speaks against converting solar and wind energy into e-fuels and offering them at filling stations?

The plans of the EU and the federal government envisage that large quantities of e-fuels will be produced both in Europe and in other parts of the world. They are intended to be used to power ships and aircraft, among other things, where batteries are impractical. It is unclear whether this will work. There are still far from enough wind turbines, solar systems and Power-to-X systems for this.

>> Read here: EU wants to reduce CO2 emissions from trucks and buses by 90 percent

Transport to Europe is also not trivial. If, in addition to ships and airplanes, trucks and cars are also to be refueled with e-fuels, implementing the plans and thus achieving climate neutrality becomes all the more difficult.

How should the existing combustion cars become climate-neutral?

Not at all. The existing combustion cars continue to drive and are mainly powered by petrol and diesel. The EU aims to become climate neutral by 2050. New cars drive on Europe’s roads for about 15 years. So if only electric cars are registered from 2035 and the electricity mix is ​​switched to renewable energies by 2050, car traffic will be practically climate-neutral by 2050. If e-fuels become significantly cheaper despite all the shortages, they could be mixed with normal petrol and diesel.

Such rules already exist for airplanes: According to the law, from 2026 aviation fuel must contain 0.5 percent e-kerosene. The share will gradually increase to two percent by 2030. For passenger cars, this would be regulated in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. These considerations regarding the existing fleet have nothing to do with the law on fleet limit values.

How expensive are e-fuels?

Synthetic fuels have so far been virtually inaccessible to normal customers. Porsche is the only German car manufacturer to invest in e-fuel production – primarily in the hope of being able to continue operating conventional sports cars for a long time to come.

In the windy south of Chile, the company is building a plant for half a billion euros that will use wind power to produce e-fuels. The Ministry of Economics is supporting the project with a good eight million euros.

According to the federal government, the cost of electricity-based liquid fuels is at least 4.50 euros per liter of diesel equivalent, i.e. compared to one liter of diesel. The EU Commission assumes that the production costs are three to six times higher than the market prices of fossil fuels.

However, since there are only pilot plants so far, it can be expected that production in large plants would be significantly cheaper. However, the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructure and Geothermal Energy assumes that the world market prices for green hydrogen produced from green electricity could triple by 2030.

The import of e-fuels from sun or wind countries is therefore probably “not a cheap panacea”. It is true that e-fuels production in North Africa or the Middle East is attractive because of the many hours of sunshine.

>> Read here: The most important questions and answers about e-fuels

However, increasing capital and transportation costs could quickly diminish or even negate these advantages. The federal government expects that the costs for e-fuels “will definitely be significantly higher than those for fossil fuels for the foreseeable future up to the 2030s”.

More: Wissing blocks EU compromise on combustion engines.