Porsche’s pilot plant in Punta Arenas, Chile, has produced its first batch of e-Fuel — a synthetic fuel manufactured from water and carbon dioxide.
Porsche has been working with partners on alternative liquid fuels for years, complementing the Volkswagen Group’s focus on electric vehicles (EVs). Porsche seeks to walk a “double-e path” which includes e-Fuels-powered cars and pure EVs.
Porsche called e-Fuel a feasible alternative that allows internal-combustion-engine vehicles to operate “nearly CO2-neutral”. It claimed that its new plant will generate up to 145 million gallons of biofuel annually by the end of this decade.
Porsche representatives told journalists that the initial test batch of 128,000 liters of fuel will eventually be sold and used for promotion. The “lighthouse projects” like the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup will receive the e-Fuel from Chile first.
The German sportscar maker’s Experience Centers worldwide will employ e-Fuel in vehicles to allow fans to burn biomass instead of fossil fuels on the track.
It claimed the Punta Arenas plant will produce 54 million liters of e-fuel per year by 2025 and increase the production tenfold two years after the conclusion of the trial phase.
