In an interview with Autocar, Volkswagen's technical director Matthias Rabe expressed the opinion that internal combustion engines will remain in demand much longer than some experts predict. According to him, the reason lies in the shortcomings of modern electric vehicles: their batteries are heavy, the range leaves much to be desired, and the cost of such cars remains high.
Rabe believes that environmental claims against ICEs can be addressed through the use of synthetic fuel. "Synthetic fuel is already used, for example, in aviation: airliners cannot fly on electricity, otherwise they would not have enough energy to cross the Atlantic. We take the task of reducing CO2 emissions seriously and even strive to be an example in this direction, but that does not mean we are ready to write off internal combustion engines," the executive said.
