Want to pay $340 to fill up your tank? Germany’s absurd bid to prolong polluting vehicles

German car drivers face fuel bills of up to $340 to fill up a tank as the result of a bizarre move by the German government to have the cars running on so-called “e-fuels” to be excluded from the European Union’s move to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2035.

The push by Germany to create a massive loophole in the legislation designed to get Europe off fossil fuel powered transport reflects the power of the local car industry, and will allow auto giants such as Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes and Audi to continue “business as usual” selling their fossil cars.

The move has been widely criticised because it makes no environmental sense, and no financial sense.

E-fuels even more expensive than fossil fuels

New analysis from Transport & Environment shows that not only is powering vehicles on e-fuels much more expensive than powering them with electricity, it’s way more expensive than petrol.

T&E’s research shows that the average german driver could be spending a staggering €210 ($A340) to fill up their vehicle with e-fuels.

“The German Chancellor is in a stand-off with the EU over his insistence that cars powered by e-fuel are allowed to be sold after a 2035 phase-out date for combustion engines,” T&E says.

“The exorbitant cost would mean only wealthy drivers could afford synthetic fuel – while pushing some drivers who purchase combustion engines certified as running on e-fuels to circumvent the rules and buy fossil petrol instead.”

The research says that e-petrol could cost more than €2.80 per litre at the pump in Germany in 2030, which is 50% more expensive than regular petrol today due to the complex and energy intensive production process.

Germans want EVs, not internal combustion vehicles

The push by the German government for e-fuels comes despite the country having one of the highest growth rates of EV market share in the world. In December fully electric BEVs made up over 30% of all new cars sold in the country.

Countries like Norway already achieve an EV market share of over 80%, and many analysts predict that global EV market share will be well over 90% by 2030, which makes the German push all the more strange.

“Chancellor Scholz is threatening to pull the rug from under the European Green Deal for the sake of saving polluting combustion engines,” Clean vehicles manager at T&E Alex Keynes, said.

“The higher cost of e-fuels will mean that only the wealthy could afford them while everyone else could be pushed into getting around the rules and using fossil petrol instead. Motorists and the climate will be the losers.”

E-fuel loophole will also increase emissions

Transport & Environment also points out that Chancellor Scholz’s position will result in an increase in CO2 emissions, just as the IPCC has released another damning report on the governments failure to address the climate crisis.

“Allowing combustion engines to be sold after 2035 would displace sales of up to 46 million zero-emission electric cars by 2050 while also depriving existing cars of the synthetic fuel they need to decarbonise,” it says.

“If e-petrol is used in new cars, vehicles already on the road would burn an additional 135 billion litres of fossil petrol and emit an extra 320 MtCO2e by 2050 than if e-petrol was available for the existing fleet.”

The loophole also condemns Europeans to breathing toxic air for decades to come as synthetic fuels sill produce air pollutants such as NO2 and carcinogenic particles.

E & T says that cars running on e-fuels could emit up to 160,000 tonnes of additional NOx pollution in the EU by 2050 – more toxic emissions than from Italy’s car fleet in an entire year, the analysis shows.

“Ultimately e-fuels will be no more than a niche solution for Porsche drivers. But by undermining the clarity of the engine phase-out for the sake of an expensive and polluting fuel, Scholz is risking Europe’s green transition and the future of its car industry.”

Negotiations between the EU Commission and the German government over the proposed loophole continue.