(Reuters) – Carmaker Stellantis is testing 28 types of engine to try to optimise their performance using synthetic e-fuels, which are made with renewable energy, a step it said on Thursday could decarbonise its existing European models.
Stellantis said in a statement that it was testing everything from tailpipe emissions to engine power and oil dilution in vehicles made from 2014 and into 2029, which totalled around 28 million cars.
“The broad adoption of eFuels would offer customers with existing internal combustion engine vehicles an easy and affordable option to decarbonise their vehicles,” it said.
The move comes just weeks after the European Union opened a legal route in its phase-out of carbon dioxide-emitting cars from 2035 to allow those with combustion engines running on e-fuels to still be sold.
The exemption, championed by Germany, was hailed by some as preserving technological freedom but viewed by others as a dangerous loophole for potentially polluting combustion engines, flagging e-fuel’s low availability and high cost.
Stellantis said it was still committed to all new car sales being battery-electric by 2030.
Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said in late March that the e-fuels vote did not change the company’s electrification strategy but demonstrated that not everybody agreed with a “dogmatic approach”. “The industry will have to demonstrate that this is carbon-neutral,” he said.
The European Commission has until the autumn to come up with a proposal for how to ensure combustion engine vehicles produced from 2035 onwards only run on e-fuels, a process in which it is expected to involve industry representatives.
Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp said on Wednesday they were road testing renewable gasoline blends but that making them affordable would require government support.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Joe White, Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Miranda Murray and Alexander Smith)
