Need e-fuels to clean up existing combustion car fleet - German auto industry
Clean Energy Wire / Reuters
Germany needs biofuels and synthetic fuels made from renewable electricity (e-fuels) to ensure that the country's existing fleet of combustion engine vehicles can help reach climate targets, said the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). However, new EU regulation (the Renewable Energy Directive III - RED III) was not ambitious enough to ramp up such fuels, said VDA. Without biofuels and e-fuels, it said, it won’t be possible for Germany to meet its climate goals. RED III stipulates a combined minimum quota for biofuels and e-fuels at 5.5 percent for 2030. The VDA says that e-fuels should have their own target, and that it should be set at at least 5 percent by the end of the decade – to help incentivise their production.
Even if the government reaches its target of having 15 million electric vehicles on roads by 2030 – something that already looks unlikely to happen – there will still be 40 million combustion engine cars and trucks that need to be powered by something other than fossil fuels, said VDA. At the beginning of 2024, a total of 49 million passenger cars and about 4 million trucks were registered in Germany. Many advocates of sustainable transport call for a reduction of the number of vehicles.
Carmakers across the globe are pursuing an electric battery future. E-fuels, on the other hand, have been heavily criticised because a lot of energy is lost in their production and use, and it is much more efficient to use the electricity directly in EVs. In addition, synthetic fuels are rare and expensive and should only be used where there are few or no alternatives. Biofuels have come under criticism as they reduce the area of food available for food production, raising concerns about food security. Germany’s environment minister, Steffi Lemke, opposed the use of biofuels last year on those grounds, but she softened her stance in January, indicating that she’s open to the use of biofuels in agriculture. Reporting from May found that the EU is unlikely to meet e-fuel targets for aviation because global production is lagging behind.
