Volkswagen: Green fuels will save the combustion engine
Reports of internal combustion engine's death greatly exaggerated, says German car-makerVolkswagen believes combustion engines still have a long future despite reports other car-makers could ditch them for pure-electric or fuel-cell vehicles.
According to VW's technical chief, Matthias Rabe, increasing restrictions on CO2 and other emissions will be overcome thanks to the development of more environmentally-friendly fuels.
Speaking to
, Rabe reaffirmed the Volkswagen Group's target of zero carbon emissions and said the new family of pure-electric ID. models would help to achieve this.But he said combustion engines would still "have a longer future than some people predict".
Rabe claims, in the future, the widespread adoption of synthetic fuels created from biomass, or other sources, would keep combustion engines relevant.
Synthetic, or e-fuels, are derived from natural materials and are claimed to either be carbon-neutral or not emit CO2 or any other harmful materials.
Among those developing the fuels is Volkswagen Group's very own Bentley, although there's still said to be some way before the car-maker will launch a vehicle capable of running on e-fuels.
Elsewhere, Mazda announced this week it was throwing technical resources behind the development of algae-based biofuels.
Driving the development of e-fuels, says Rabe, is the limitation of current electric technology and the weight and size of batteries.
The other huge attraction is e-fuels should handily circumvent the European Union's ever-stricter CO2 and emissions targets.
“We will come to e-fuels,” he said. “If you look at the aviation industry, e-fuels are in high demand because [planes] won’t go electric, otherwise you won’t cross the Atlantic.
“We take our CO2 targets very seriously and want to be a role model on CO2, but that doesn’t mean we will exclude the combustion engine.”
As well as advanced synthetic fuels, Rabe confirmed Volkswagen would continue to invest in Compressed Natural Gas for some markets.
Audi, meanwhile, has already revealed it is developing E-gasoline and e-diesel– a synthetic diesel that is carbon-neutral and both sulphur and benzene-free.
The move by Volkswagen to continue investing in combustion engines reflects a similar approach by BMW that says it remains committed to traditional petrols for another 30 years and carry on selling diesels for at least another two decades.
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