While carmakers use the holy hybrid technology to make supercars even more insanely fast, Audi’s synthetic petrol comes with an octane rating of RON 100. That means more speed as well.
Premium gas in Europe has an octane rating of RON 98, while US pump gas is between 91-92 has a slightly lower one using a different measuring standard. The regular European juice is 95 octane, and it doesn’t have the high ethanol content US gas does. But no matter what we put in our tanks, oil is getting harder and harder to get, so Audi has been working hard for a while to come up with synthetic fuels that can save internal combustion without the help of dead dinosaurs.
Their e-benzin is made without the use of petroleum. It is 100-percent iso-octane and contains no sulfur or benzene, so it burns very cleanly. What’s more, in the medium term, Audi and partner Global Bioenergies aim to modify the process so that it requires no biomass, instead requiring just water, hydrogen, CO2 and sunlight.
See you on the other side of the rainbow!
Since natural gas powered Audis are a thing in Europe, they’ve been producing larger quantities of “e-gas” (synthetic methane) on an industrial scale for a while, but their “e-ethanol”, “e-diesel” and “e-benzin” will also have to reach that point in the following years.
Once they crack how to use hydrogen to transform the gaseous isobutene into liquid iso-octane, I’ll ask them to give me a R8 V10 Plus pumped full of said 100 octane.
I want to know what it feels like to save the planet at 200+ mph.
Contact the author at mate@jalopnik.com.