Porsche Invests in Development of Environment-Friendly Fuels

German automobile manufacturer Porsche has invested $24 million to develop e-fuels. Porsche, in collaboration with Siemens Energy and other industrial manufacturing companies, aims to establish a plant for the making of e-fuels. E-fuels are synthetic, environmentally friendly fuels meant to replace gasoline used for vehicles. The German government will be backing the project as part of its efforts to import green fuels. According to German Federal Economy Minister Peter Altmaier [alt-MAHY-uhr], Haru Oni, as the project is called, will receive almost $10 million from the German government. The plant will be located in Cabo Negro in Chile and is projected to start production in 2022. Porsche will be the plant’s main customer and will use the e-fuels for their motorsports and Porsche Experience Center vehicles. Director Michael Steiner said that the new e-fuels will allow Porsche to continue with plans to produce cars with top-of-the-line performance without worrying about CO2 emissions. The automaker advocates e-fuels as a means to reduce carbon emissions. Porsche chief Oliver Blume said that e-fuels are versatile as they are compatible with both traditional engines and electric-hybrid engines and can make use of existing gas stations, eliminating the need to build new ones. The plant will use renewable wind energy as a power source, and this is one of the reasons why Chile was chosen as the plant’s location. Chile has ideal weather conditions, which are crucial for the plant’s operation. The areas of Patagonia and Magallanes [mah-gah-YAH-nes], in particular, are known for having strong winds.