GREEN CHILE PLANT

Porsche believes that e-fuel will keep the internal combustion engine alive in an electrified future. Steve Sutcliffe travels to Chile to find out how

- Steve Sutcliffe

Can e-fuels save the world? Turns out question that it's a 74-million-dollar And the answer? On their own, probably not. But as part of a midterm solution to the increasingly thorny issue of climate change, e-fuels can no longer be ignored.

So although they can't quite be hailed as a miracle cure for the 'hangover to end all hangovers' we've inflicted upon ourselves courtesy of the industrial revolution, they're probably the most realistic chance we've got of not completely mucking it all up during the next 10-15 years. And for internal combustion engine enthusiasts especially, they are pretty much the only way forwards, longer-term.

Without e-fuels it's not unduly dramatic to say it'll be game over for the combustion engine in ten years' time because, if nothing else changes by then, ICE vehicles will be legislated into a dusty toy box for eternity.

But if e-fuels are adopted quickly and globally, we might just have a chance. We might even be able to continue driving our beloved ICE cars not just for the next 10-15 years but if they're embraced in the way they should be - virtually forever. This, you'll agree, would be A Very Good Thing Indeed.

But do e-fuels honestly contain this much raw potential? In a word, yes, because in the simplest terms an e-fuel takes as much CO₂ out of the atmosphere during its creation as it puts back in when it's being burned. And that really is the crux of the matter, beyond which are myriad other reasons to justify its importance but none so important as this: the simple fact that you take out what you put back in.