Porsche and its partners have opened and begun production at an eFuels facility in Chile, South America.

Working with Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF) and others, Porsche marked the opening with the ceremonial fueling of a 911 sports car with the first synthetic fuel produced at the site.

In the pilot phase, eFuel production of around 130,000 litres per year is planned at the plant. After the pilot phase, the company says scaling up will take the project to a projected 55 million litres per year by the middle of the decade, and a couple of years after that, capacity is expected to be 550 million litres.

The eFuel is made from water and carbon dioxide using wind energy and enables the nearly CO2-neutral operation of petrol engines. Porsche says the synthetic fuels supplement electromobility and are part of its sustainability strategy.

Last year, Porsche and HIF announced it had begun the development of an eFuel production plant in Tasmania. That facility is expected to begin construction in 2024.

“The potential of eFuels is huge,” said Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Development and Research at Porsche AG.

“There are currently more than 1.3 billion vehicles with combustion engines worldwide. Many of these will be on the roads for decades to come, and eFuels offer the owners of existing cars a nearly carbon-neutral alternative. As the manufacturer of high-performance, efficient engines, Porsche has a wide range of know-how in the field of fuels.”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (February 2023)

28 February 2023