E-Fuels Will Support Future Combustion Supercars, Says Ferrari Boss

If there’s one thing that nobody in the automotive world knows – not the companies, not legislators, not consumers, and certainly not journalists – it’s just what’s going to power cars as the industry aims for carbon net zero. While some manufacturers are going all-in on electric, others are being more cautious, and that particularly applies to lower-volume, more exclusive companies like Ferrari.

The storied marque is preparing to unveil its first fully electric car next year, and has just inaugurated a new ‘e-building’ at its Maranello factory that’ll facilitate its manufacture. However, the company is far from committed to a fully electric future, with its CEO Benedetto Vigna recently saying that he believes combustion cars will always exist in some capacity.

Ferrari 296 GTS

Now, speaking to Autocar, Vigna has expanded on this, and how he believes e-fuels will provide a solid future for the combustion engine. E-fuels and their closely related relatives, synthetic fuels produce vastly less carbon dioxide than traditional fossil fuels, are already widely used across motorsport, and plenty of large manufacturers and fuel suppliers are working on them.

Vigna says they’ll play an integral part of keeping combustion-powered cars from Ferrari alive long into the future, saying: “We believe there is still a valid way forward for ICE cars and this is going to be supported by the development of carbon-neutral fuel.”

Vigna believes that the use of e-fuels in F1 will speed up road car…

He also said that the adoption of e-fuels in Formula 1 and other motorsports will allow the technology to trickle down into road cars.

Various governing bodies, including the European Union, are pushing for an exemption for synthetic fuels and e-fuels when bans on fossil fuel-powered vehicles come into effect. While big question marks remain around price and availability, it seems there’s a very good chance that these replacements may well keep the engines we know and love around for longer than expected, even if they become increasingly niche.