A British company in Bicester is aiming to ramp up production of E-Fuel’s, or synthetic fuels in order to combat the 2035 ban on new fossil fueled cars
British company, Zero, is on a mission to jumpstart synthetic fuels before the UK Government’s ban on the sale of new fossil fueled cars in 2035. We have spoken a fair amount about E-Fuels in the past, even reporting on the criticism of them, and with Zero being a British backer of the technology, we’re excited!
Zero is the brainchild of former F1 engineer, Paddy Lowe whose portfolio includes Williams, Mercedes and McLaren. After 32 years in the sport, in 2019 he left F1. A year later in 2020, he co-founded Zero with the sole purpose of producing synthetic fuel for all areas of the transportation sector.
Now, Zero isn’t the only company that is aiming to produce synthetic fuel, as we reported just last month that Porsche are really trying to up their game.
What is significant though, is that a British company is taking on the challenge, mainly because the UK government hasn’t announced any plans to follow the EU’s decision to allow internal combustion engined cars to be built if they run on E-Fuels after 2035. The thinking is that having one of the major players in the game on our shores will force the Government to query their decision. After all, companies have the biggest say with legislation.
Clicking the article above will explain in detail how producing this fuel works, as it is massively energy-intensive and requires renewable sources for it to be viable. Zero expect to start producing fuel in the Autumn of this year.
There is one drawback though, and that’s how much they can actually produce. The British lab state they will only be able to produce 8 litres of synthetic fuel a day. We already know that in the beginning it will be much more expensive to produce than conventional fuels, but with more and more companies getting behind the technology, economies of scale will kick in and it will get cheaper. Just look at how many oil companies there are, if they converted their offshore oil rigs into manufacturing facilities to produce this stuff, we’d be on our way.
What’s so special about Zero?
Well aside from the fact it’s a British lab backing the technology, they’re not just focusing on petrol. As mentioned, they want to produce synthetic fuel for all areas of the transportation sector. This means they need to make petrol, as well as diesel and also avgas (aviation gas or ‘jet fuel’). This is the key to making E-Fuels viable, as it can’t just target petrol powered vehicles. It will need to work for the commercial sector.
Trucks, vans and haulage vehicles typically all use diesel, and that is the most polluting fuel we use. So to have synthetic versions of it would be incredibly useful for transportation companies as it means they won’t have to invest huge amounts of money into buying new trucks – especially electric ones which are a good while away off being feasible.
You can actually pre-order some fuel, but you might need to dig deep as it isn’t the cheapest at the moment. You can order 20L of fuel from the very first barrel produced, that is limited to 8 units, at a cost of £50,000 a pop and will arrive later this year.
If that’s too much, you can then get a delivery in 2025 of 20L from the first tanker load, which is limited to 1,000 units at a much more friendly £1,000. Those are the only options available at the moment, and both of them are the equivalent of 95 Ron petrol. You can view them here.
However, like many of us with silly toys, they won’t run properly on 95, we need 97 or above. So, Zero will also have you covered later on down the line when they will produce a 98 Ron equivalent called Zero® Syn98™. If you can’t run your truck on petrol, then they will also be producing Zero® SynDiesel™, which is, well, diesel.
Either way, it seems E-fuel or synthetic fuel is certainly here to stay, and that’s not a bad thing at all.