The EU has U-Turned on it's blanket ban of combustion cars from 2035.

Thanks to Germany digging its heels in, an agreement has been reached that will allow the sale of new combustion cars in the EU from 2035 on, as long as they are capable of runnig carbon neutral eFuels and synthetic fuels. 

The plan was welcomed by Ferrari, who see it as an opportunity to keep making the cars they want to make: "On top of electric cars, we'll also be able to go on with our internal combustion engine ones" said Benedetto Vigna, the CEO of Ferrari.

The idea of carbon neutral fuel is not a new one, with eFuel and synthetic fuel production processes having been around for many years. With eFuel you have the choice of drawing CO2 from the atmosphere to then synthesise it with hydrogen gathered from H20 via electrolysis, or you can gather the CO2 from industrial processes, for example, the production of steel. Doing it this way offsets the carbon footprint, and results in carbon neutral eFuel. Synthetic fuel is biofuel created from gasified biomass feedstock - for example, plants, wood or waste - which is then catalysed wit hydrogen thermally or chemically to create a synthetic fuel.

Whilst existing cars cannot be run on these carbon neutral fuels, it's highly likely that this U-Turn from the The EU will spark enough interest for some to look into retro-fitting systems that could make conversions a reality. This is good news for long distance transport like road haulage, shipping and aviation, as the size and weight of battery electric vehicles that would be needed to cover such distances are not around at the moment.

This move towards eFuels could be the answer to keeping the car you love on the road for as long as you want to drive it.