Porsche breaks ground on plant to make ground-breaking synthetic fuel

Porsche and its international partners have started building the factory that will produce a new synthetic fuel starting in 2022. Located in southern Chile, the plant will make fuel for race cars, sports cars like the 911, and classic cars.

Producing synthetic fuel is an extremely complex and highly innovative process. In the company's words, electrolysers split water into oxygen and hydrogen using wind power, hence why the plant is in Chile; it's located in one of the most reliably windy parts of the world. CO2 is then filtered from the air and combined with the hydrogen to produce synthetic methanol, which in turn is converted into fuel that can be burned in a piston engine.

Porsche sees synthetic fuel as a non-electrified alternative to gasoline in markets where so-called Green Deal regulations are trying to make the internal combustion engine illegal in the coming years. "Our icon, the 911, is particularly suited to the use of eFuels. But so are our much-loved historic vehicles," said Porsche's R&D boss Michael Steiner. He added that approximately 70% of the cars Porsche has made are still on the road.