The European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers has announced that it has joined the eFuels Alliance.
More than 170 companies are represented by the eFuel Alliance, which works to promote and enable the industrial production of non-CO2-emitting combustible fuels. In doing so, it works to improve the sustainability of Europe’s transport industry - including both personal and public transport methods.
The announcement by the European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (ACEM) is the confirmation of the European motorcycle manufacturers’ desires and ambitions to continue making use of internal combustion engines (ICE) - into which the major manufacturers have invested almost all of their resources since their respective births - in the future.
Continuing with combustion requires a change from CO2-emitting fossil fuels, though. It is often assumed that non-zero-emission vehicles must not use combustion at all, but synthetic fuels, for example, can be carbon neutral.
While electrics will inevitably become a major part of society in the relatively near future, ACEM’s latest motion towards the support of non-CO2-emitting fuels is confirmation that it is remaining open-minded in its approach to a carbon-neutral future.
Such a technology-neutral approach is one that should perhaps be considered by the UK government as it looks to move towards the same future.
ACEM confirms that its Vision 2030+ “includes a decarbonisation strategy that foresees the use of a range of technological solutions. Electric vehicles will play a central role in this strategy,” ACEM says.
But, while some categories of powered-two-wheelers (PTW) are relatively straightforward now to electrify, others aren’t, “particularly leisure-oriented vehicles,” ACEM says.
ACEM says that “This is mainly because current propulsion batteries for this segment remain large and heavy. This affects vehicles' handling and dynamics and requires significant trade-offs at the expense of range and convenience.”
“eFuels,” ACEM says, are “a perfect solution for those vehicle segments for which electrification remains challenging from a technical standpoint.”
The additional benefit of pursuing an ‘efuel’ solution is that current ICE vehicles could be converted in the future to run on them, rather than having their ICEs discarded for an electric powertrain, or even the vehicle being discarded entirely.
ACEM and the eFuel Alliance will host an online event on 28 September to discuss efuels as a supporting factor in the decarbonisation of PTWs.
