E-fuels could keep combustion engine cars on the road in the EU past its 2035 climate deadline

A visitor to a ceremony celebrating the commissioning of a research plant has a bottle of e-fuel in his hand at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). | Image: Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images

Luxury carmakers’ push for synthetic e-fuels has weakened the European Union’s plan to get internal combustion engines off the road in the future. After weeks of delay, the Council of the European Union adopted regulations today to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and vans by 2035. That would have amounted to an effective ban on cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) if not for a last-minute update that carves out an exemption for ICE cars that swap out gasoline for e-fuels.

E-fuel is a synthetic alternative that can be made from air and water using electricity. While running on e-fuel instead of gasoline might reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it’s still costly and inefficient. And some experts worry that making...

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