The future of the car and of mobility, the green transition, the ban on diesel and petrol engines, the most innovative solutions in the name of technological neutrality. These are the themes that animated the debate that was held this week in Milan at #FORUMautomotive.
The 2023 edition of the annual closed-door round table with representatives of the Italian production chain was inevitably conditioned by the European debate on the stop to the sale of heat engines starting from 2035. Media is being mediated in Brussels: to convince governments opposed to the stop – Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria – the Commission has “offered” the possibility of selling new cars with internal combustion engines even after 2035, provided that they are powered by e-fuels, synthetic fuels produced by electrolysis from green hydrogen. Cars must have a system that recognizes neutral fuels in terms of CO2: if a fossil fuel enters the tank, the engine must not start.
E-fuels are different from biofuels (obtained from waste biomass) and today in Europe they are produced only in Germany and Iceland. Projects are launched in Spain, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
Italy, which has instead focused on biofuels, remains against the 2035 stop, as confirmed by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, in #FORUMautomotive. “We are convinced – said the minister – that the highway for the future of mobility is electric, but we say ‘no’ to 2035 as the fixed date for stopping all heat engines with no alternatives”. Italy asks to consider “the use of biofuels, e-fuels and even hydrogen”.
The position expressed by the minister was confirmed, in fact, by the interventions of the category representatives present at the forum: from Unrae to Anfia, passing through the business world. Looking to 2035, the Italian supply chain is therefore promoting an approach in the name of technological neutrality: having set the ceiling on emissions for the vehicles of the future, the industry must be free to choose with which technology to achieve the goal.