Porsche Supercup Field to Race on eFuels This Year

All Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars racing in this year’s Porsche Supercup series will operate on eFuels for the first time.

The German manufacturer says the fuel is ‘potentially near-carbon-neutral’ and is blended from a feedstock that comes from Porsche’s Haru Oni pilot plant in Chile. It follows on from three years of the Porsche Supercup using a second-generation, bio-based partially synthetic fuel mixture developed with Esso. Switching to eFuels is designed to be the next step in reducing carbon emissions in the company’s flagship single-make series. Porsche has so far invested over US$100 million in eFuel research and development for road car applications and wants to showcase some of its work through motorsport.

eFuels are synthetic, liquid fuels produced from renewable energy sources such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the air. Porsche’s Haru Oni facility, which opened at the end of 2022, uses wind power to extract the hydrogen. The manufacturer currently gets its CO2 from a biogenic source but is developing a proof-of-concept direct air capture process (DAC) system that will be more environmentally friendly. The extracted hydrogen and CO2 are first turned into eMethanol, which is then distilled to lower the water content and converted through dehydration reactions into the synthetic gasoline that will be used in Supercup.

‘The Supercup is also a beacon for us when it comes to eFuels,’ said Michael Steiner, board member for research and development at Porsche. ‘Motorsport has always been a driver of innovation – now also in terms of fuel. Through this project, we are taking further steps towards achieving our decarbonisation goals.

‘If you look at the entire value chain, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup racing cars can race with eFuels in a potentially almost CO2-neutral way. Here, the new fuel is used under the toughest conditions. To slow global warming, it is essential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions – this also applies to motorsport.’

The Supercup season will consist of eight rounds on the Formula 1 support bill, starting at Imola next month and concluding at Monza in early September. The campaign also includes a round on the streets of Monaco and a trip to Silverstone in the UK. As the Supercup is a sprint race series, there will be no refuelling under the new eFuels regulations.