Bentley Wants To Embrace The Synthetic Fuels
by AutoExpert | 24 March, 2021
Synthetic Fuels is still an expensive way to keep the internal combustion engine alive but Bentley is open to the idea. The main investor and explore of how synthetic fuel works is Porsche by establishing an e-fuel production facility in Chile currently. The location of the facility was chosen due to the partnership between Porsche and Siemens.
Bentley has no intention of partnering with Porsche to pursue this project but is a true believer that e-fuels would allow to continue to produce ICEs until the British carmaker reached its ten-year plan of going all-electric vehicle. Matthias Rabe, Bentley's engineering boss stated that they're more looking at the ideas of sustainable fuels, without any differentials between synthetic or bio-gen.
This is a logical argument for the lack of involvement in the project itself. "We think the combustion engine will be around for a long time in the years to come," meanwhile the advantages for the environment from synthetic fuels would be huge. At the same time, this an important step towards electromobility, despite the heavy costs.
Just like Bentley's Chief executive Adrian Hallmark stated, replacing the reliance on oil with synthetic fuels isn't possible nor practical right now. "Today we need about five trillion barrels of oil per day, so replacing that with e-fuels won't be possible". But they rely on the EVs' risen demand on the market now which could become a trigger for the science to invest more in developing the idea and become more open-minded.
So far, synthetic fuels will be used by several automakers and for select models only. Maybe after more practical use of these eco-fuels, the interest will rise up.