STUTTGART: Porsche aims to give its iconic 911 sports car an extra lease of life by using controversial synthetic fuels from a plant which has just gone on stream in Chile.
Porsche has the electric Taycan in its range, but by the middle of the next decade the sale of cars using wet fuels like petrol and diesel is set to be banned in Europe, sounding the death knell for the sports car.
Synthetic fuels have been praised by some experts as the saviour of the combustion engine, while detractors say their production uses too much energy.
Most of the more than a billion internal combustion-powered cars worldwide could run easily on so-called efuels or efuel/petrol blends.
Ample wind and reliable infrastructure in the south of the Chile are the key to the success of the new plant, opened in December in Punta Arenas, claims Porsche and its partners around the Chilean operating company Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF).
Underlining the project's potential implications for the 911 brand, Porsche senior executives were on site for a symbolic refuelling of a Porsche 911 with the first efuels produced on site.
"Porsche is committed to a double E: electromobility and complementary eFuels," Porsche Executive Board member Barbara Frenkel told Germany's trade website Automobil Produktion, claiming that efuels reduce CO2 emissions.
Porsche says synthetic fuels also complement electromobility and are an integral part of the carmaker's sustainability strategy.
The synthetic fuels use CO2 from the atmosphere that has already been emitted as pollution, which gives them the potential to be a carbon-neutral fuel. Supporters say they would also give car consumers the choice of whether or not to go electric.
Critics say the refinement of efuels is anything but green due to the massive amounts of energy required to harness CO2 and hydrogen from the atmosphere.
This means the creation of synthetic fuel is only carbon neutral if renewable energy sources are used, such as solar, wind or hydro-electric power.
During the pilot phase in Chile, an efuel production target of about 130,000 litres per year is planned, increasing to 155,000 litres. Porsche says the efuels made in Chile using wind energy would be "nearly CO2 neutral" and initially limited to specific projects only.
