Sports Car Makers Attempting To Save Internal Combustion Engines From Bans

Efforts by a number of states and corporations to phase out the traditional engine are being met by serious resistance from two luxury automakers.

Porsche and Ferrari are working on plans to keep their fuel-powered engines alive. The European Union is proposing a ban on new vehicles using traditional internal combustion engines by 2035.

The plan to keep the engines alive is backed by the German government, which wants an exception made for the use of “eFuels.” These fuels are seen as a potential compromise between traditional gas and newer electric drivetrains.

The current plan, according to the luxury carmakers, is to run these engines using a number of alternative fuels.

Such eFuels would include synthetic kerosene, methane or methanol used with captured carbon dioxide emissions and hydrogen and produced using carbon-free electricity. Since the fuel was created with captured carbon, the European Union sees it as carbon-neutral.

The foreign carmakers’ efforts to keep the internal combustion engine alive come during a period of sustained efforts to get rid of the gas and diesel engine.

Several states have pushed for such a ban. New York is banning most internal combustion engines from new sales in 2035. The new law requires both medium and heavy-duty trucks to be “zero-emissions” by 2045.

While New York carried out its ban using a formal law, California introduced its goal to end new gas-powered autos by 2035 in an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) during the pandemic.

The efforts of New York and California are being considered by three other states.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, said that California’s ban on gas cars is a “critical milestone in our climate fight” and called for the state to pass similar restrictions. The state also set a goal to end the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2030.

Oregon is also considering a similar provision as California, with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality stating that it desired to end most gas engine sales by 2035.
Massachusetts passed a similar bill last year under Gov. Charlie Baker (R-MA) to make all new vehicles sold in the state zero-emission starting in 2035.