Redux: Porsche's Green Fuel Gambit Keeps Gas Powered Cars on the Road
EVs Crater and Porsche Propels Petrol Profits with Windmills and Magic Dust
A Real Green Machine with a glorious flat-six motor
Tuco’s Child Preface
The following updated article ranges from geopolitics, green politics, to sports cars, and the chemistry of synfuels aka “windmills and magic dust”.
This article has been updated and relaunched in light of the most recent Porsche and VW EV woes, especially in terms of Porsche’s Taycan EV recalls and cratering EV sales in China and worldwide. And lest we forget the sinking of the Felicity Ace by a Porsche Taycan EV fire!
Brutally, as the EVisceration and EV backlash continues, EV mandates also continue to do irrecoverable damage to car manufacturers worldwide, as massive losses continue to build. Porsche has now backed off it’s EV transition, but still intends, as of today, to make the mid-engined Cayman pure sports car all electric, which is a lame disaster IMHO, and which will only increase the value of the ICE Caymans. I also note that the 2025 911 is now a hybrid, and is turning into an all electronic AI GT car.
Due to this misbegotten transition, it is easy to predict that the values of desireable new and used ICE vehicles will to continue to climb if more EVs are forced opon us.
I hope that my new and existing readers will enjoy the following article.
Porsche and Germany’s Energiewende Inanity
The iconic 911 is what has made Porsche what it is today with an incredible history of racing successes, an unparalled driving experience and high profitability. The 911 is an instantly recognizable car worldwide and has made Porsche one of the most desireable brands of all time.
However, Porsche and the German car industry, in it’s own interminable way, has flung itself into the EV market and to date has suffered with an unrelenting decline in EV sales, as the average German (and people worldwide), have woken up to the realization that EVs have limited range, suffer expensive breakdowns, and are costly to run because of ultra-expensive German electricity in particular.
To date, the German car industry is the largest employer in Germany and represents perhaps its largest industrial base, and thus holds some leverage over a subset of the Green Movement; spearheaded by the Inane Energiewende, a Putin/Merkel backed fiasco to decarbonize Germany’s primary energy supply, as aided and abetted by the anti-nuclear Green Party. The German car industry now faces sigificant economic challenges, contradictions and conflicts, in addition to a confusing confrontation with its own car culture and car enthusiasts.
We also mustn't forget recent history, in which the VW Group pivoted to EVs after they foundered upon the shoals of truth and engineering, also known as the VW Diesel Emissions Cheating Scandal, a debacle of untold proportions and a Dieter-Style Sprockets Humiliation which destroyed the diesel market worldwide and the larger popular uptake of efficient and torquey diesel cars. Now, after $38 billion or so in fines, VW has pivoted to EVs and yet another boondoggle.
Above: Saturday Night Live Sprockets meets real life in today’s Green Germany
Above: not a SNL skit, this is real. Greenpeace activist declaring victory over nuclear power 2023.
In yet another astonishing misstep, the German Green Government decided to shut down their own nuclear power plants, thus canceling a source of efficient high quality energy; and are now forced to burn more coal, lignin, wood pellets, etc. to heat homes and charge EVs, which of course perform terribly when it is cold outside and stuck in traffic. Incidently and interestingly enough, EV breakdowns have resulted in a windfall of profits for the diesel powered German Auto Clubs which are extremely busy with the emergency charging and the towing of EVs that die on public roads such as the Autobahn, and commonly cause massive traffic jams until extricated.
Compound these Clusters with the general sinking of the entire Teutonic Economic Ship, captained by the Clueless in Stuttgart Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the Fatherland has entered a seemingly endless Bermuda Triangle of disasters.
Above: Robert “Dieter” Habeck kowtowing to Qatar Oil Minister in yet another humiliation. Good-god dude, get up !
So back to Porsche and the Green Fuel Gambit
Above: It’s a fossil fuel burning bad-ass green machine !
Porsche. They can be smart, and they can be lame. They do know how to market and how to play both sides though. They make alot of money, especially off the 911 and SUVs. So here is the question to the reader and car enthusiasts in general:
Question: “Do you want to drive an electric 911 or Cayman?”
Answer: “Not really, it kind of kills the whole experience of that fabulous flat-4 or 6 motor, it’s symphony and the whole driving experience..plus it makes the cars heavier and less agile.”
Porsche knows this, and in their infinite green wisdom have come up with a plan to extend the life of the iconic internal combustion powered 911 and possibility other Porsche ICE cars by pivoting to “Porsche Green e-fuels”, which by some hocus-pocus and voo-doo, satisfies the Greenies for now. But how? First, the Greenies are clueless and emotion driven and easily tricked, but also, in theory, synthetic e-fuels could reduce the CO2 emissions of internal combustion by around 85%, according to Porsche VP Dr Frank Walliser.
Above: E-fuel cost about twenty dollah per gallon Young Grasshopper, but no worry we get betta, or use your tax dollars to subsidize!
I have some news for the Good Doctor Frank: it does not take a genius to figure out that road cars only contribute a tiny fraction to global CO2 emissions, and that is pretending that CO2 from cars and sacred Porsches actually contribute to global warming and/or climate change.
Notably, it is easy to calculate using elementary school math and using the USA EPA’s own data and world stats that even if we magically replaced all cars on the planet with EVs, it would not have any effect on “global warming” because the passenger car total is only a small fraction. Besides, burning the magic “green juice” will create CO2 at the tailpipe anyway, so the whole scheme is really a hide the ball gambit.
Above: Arte Johnson from Laugh-In 🤣. Do you remember?
Follow the Money$: it’s really not just the ICE 911 they want to keep selling, Porsche R&D boss Michael Steiner has suggested that the use of e-fuels could allow Porsche to continue selling all the Porsche ICE cars alongside it’s EVs for many years to come !
Above: 911 with a drum of green “sustainable and renewable” fuel produced by windmills and magic lala dust…..and still produces CO2 out the tailpipe (shhhh).
So How is the Green $$ Fuel Made?
Ooompah!
Above: The Porsche and Seimans quixotic e-fuel plant in Chile uses “sustainable “ electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, after which hydrogen and captured CO2 are converted into methanol via exposure to magic dust catalyst, and then the methanol is converted into gasoline via Exxon magic dust.
Let’s get real here. As a chemist I was instantly suspicious of this process for a number of reasons, firstly, and most practically, splitting water to create hydrogen with intermittant and diffuse wind energy is an inefficient bird-brained idea, and besides that, the turbines only last about 15 years before the blades are worn out and the gearboxes as well, leading to a massive and ongoing disposal problem. And don’t get me started on the cradle to grave fossil fuels burned to create and dispose of the turbine monstrosities.
Now, what about the overall chemical conversion of hydrogen and CO2 to gasoline in the presence of catalysts? As a chemist, I was more then a little interested. To save you some time, I can share right away that this is a net-loser Green Science Experiment.
Here I explain and make it simple, because it is:
Step one using windmills as an electricity source for “splitting water” into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis is a lame disaster for a great number of reasons already touched upon. Think nuclear energy if you must split water.
Step two involves capturing and purifying the hydrogen derived from “splitting water” via electrolysis from step one. But don’t forget, pure water with a certain amount of a certain salt is needed for efficient electrolysis, so energy intensive desalinization is used to get pure water, and then just the right amount of salt is added back. Good grief, another PITA.
Step three involves exposing the purified hydrogen from step 2 to purified CO2 in the presence of magic dust (catalyst). This creates methanol which…….whoa right here!
Where are they going to get the CO2 from?? CO2 capture of course, a highly ineffcient, energy intensive process. Basically one has to capture CO2 from the air or some smokestack, and then isolate and purify the CO2 fraction, and then compress it and liquify it for handling, storage and use. Do ya think that this might take some energy input to perform? The First and Second Law of Thermodynamics are still in play. Nothing is free, what goes in must come out. Things tend toward disorder. What a mess.
For those who haven’t had had enough fun just yet, see:
Step four: methanol is converted to gasoline via energy intensive process with catalyst, thank you Exxon !
Step five: fill car up with “green juice”, pedal to the metal, and voila, still create CO2 ! Look away, nothing to see here, thank you.
Porsche-Siemans process scheme below
Above: Process scheme for magic synthetic windmill fuel, courtesy of Car and Driver, a great magazine.
Dear Readers: a legit iconic ICE powered Porsche 911 is the best! Right?
Check out “GoldenRod” below and tell me what you think!
I want to be outraged because Porsche is such an iconic brand, but that may be one of the problems, the climate communists despise icons, so are likely targeting those very companies for destruction. It will be quite interesting to see what happens when the weather turns cold in Germany
That gold 911 is sweet.