Next year, Formula One goes green. It may come as a surprise that the world’s most profligate motorsport (forget the racing; check out the airfreight miles … ) has actually been running highly efficient hybrid engines since 2014, but in 2026 the sport goes a step further by adopting fully renewable fuel.
This fuel isn’t biofuel, which is a type of alcohol-based fuel made from organic materials, including oil-rich crops and bio-waste, but instead a fully synthetic fuel made by drawing carbon dioxide from the air and combining it with hydrogen made from the electrolysis of water. Mix the two in the right way, and you get a very simple hydrocarbon, or to you and me, petrol.
It sounds like a brilliant idea, even if the emissions of the cars on the racetrack actually only account for 1 per cent of F1’s carbon footprint (those air miles again … ). The idea is not just to take the carbon out of the racing, though, but to both inspire others to do something similar and to use the cauldron of racing to improve synthetic fuel, or e-fuel, technology.
Surely, you might think, that makes more sense than the push for electric vehicles. If we could just literally pull fuel from air and water, making a carbon-neutral fuel for the world’s cars, wouldn’t that be easier?
RM Block
Well, yes, in theory it would be. But alas, as ever, things are not that simple. There are significant problems with e-fuels and biofuels. The biggest issue for e-fuels is cost – right now, they’re incredibly expensive, with only a few companies currently able to make small amounts.
According to environmental think tank Transport & Environment: “The proponents of e-fuels for cars are advocating for exemptions for e-fuels to be added into the car CO2 standards. Our analysis shows why this is not credible from an economic point of view. Taking the total cost of ownership into account, running a car on e-fuels over five years will cost a driver €10,000 more than running a battery electric car. High e-fuel costs will also make running second-hand cars on e-petrol around €10,000 more expensive over the same time frame.”
Even the profligate F1 teams agree with the cost issue – some teams have said that in 2026 their fuel bills will go from a few hundred thousand euro annually to tens of millions.
Equally, Transport & Environment says the biggest issue with e-fuels is their overall environmental cost. Carbon neutral at the point of use they may be, but they take lots of energy to make. “Supplying just 10 per cent of new cars with e-fuels instead of electrifying them will require 26 per cent more renewable-electricity generation in Europe, an independent study shows. Synthetic fuels should instead be prioritised for planes and ships, most of which cannot use batteries to decarbonise and which today burn fossil fuels that may be even worse for air pollution,” says a Transport & Environment spokesperson.
Hydrogen faces similar issues, as you need electricity to separate water into its component hydrogen and oxygen molecules, and then more energy again to compress or freeze that hydrogen so that it can be transported, stored, and eventually pumped into a vehicle. Leave that to the big trucks, say experts, although the likes of BMW, Toyota and Hyundai are still keen on hydrogen as a fuel. Next year, BMW will launch an all-new X5 SUV which you’ll be able to have with hydrogen power (as well as, according to taste, petrol, diesel, hybrid or fully electric versions – all bases covered).
According to BMW’s chairman, Oliver Zipse, when it comes to the battery-versus-hydrogen debate: “A dependency on a single technology can be damaging to an industry. Putting all your eggs in one basket is just poor asset allocation. Hydrogen, for example, offers Europe an opportunity to use our expertise and take the lead on an emerging technology that will contribute to our climate goals. And, unlike BEVs [battery electric vehicles], without the need for large amounts of raw materials or battery technology which are not localisable at large scale in Europe.”
Meanwhile, biofuels – already in widespread use, such as the blended E10 unleaded fuel we currently all use in Ireland – have their own shortcomings, with critics saying that they displace food crops from available arable land, and that the likes of “virgin” palm oil, a big driver of deforestation, can be added to biofuels and there aren’t sufficient safeguards to prevent that.
And then there’s the overarching issue of aviation. The hunger for global travel and the almost inimical relationship between aircraft and batteries means that planes will need to soak up as much or more of all the hydrogen, biofuels and e-fuels that we can make. As an island nation, that’s a fuel demand we can’t afford to ignore.
