German carmaker Porsche AG has started producing electric fuel (e-fuel, a type of synthetic fuel) and announced plans to increase capacity to several million liters per year by the middle of this decade.

So the company together with its Chilean partner Highly Innovative Fuels opened its first plant in Chile, Porsche said, reports interfax.ru

In the initial stages of the plant capacity will be only 130 thousand liters of fuel per year, which will be used for motorsport and research purposes.

Later, by 2025, the company plans to increase production to 55 million liters per year and by 2027 – up to 550 million liters per year.

In the future, Porsche intends to sell E-fuel to oil companies for further distribution.

E-fuel is a type of synthetic methanol produced through a complex process using water, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. E-fuel can provide nearly CO2-neutral operation of internal combustion engines. However, it still requires the use of petroleum oil to lubricate the engine in automobiles.

“The potential for e-fuel is great. There are currently more than 1.3 billion vehicles with internal combustion engines in operation worldwide. Many of them will continue to be on the road for the next few decades, and e-fuel offers owners of these vehicles a good alternative,” said Porsche R&D director Michael Steiner.

At the same time, the company noted that the development and production of electric fuel will not affect its plans to electrify 80 percent of Porsche’s vehicle lineup by 2030.