“Audi has set itself the ambitious goal of successively achieving a reduction of about 30 percent of vehicle-specific CO2 emissions by 2025,” says Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Motorsport. “Obviously, electric mobility plays a major role in this context. However, we still have a large fleet of passenger cars using classic internal combustion engines in existence worldwide that will be with us for many more years. By using low carbon fuels, a really noticeable CO2 reduction could be achieved for these cars without having to make technical changes. It’s great that motorsport is once again playing a pioneering role. We are excited about the idea of reducing CO2 emissions through the use of waste.”
The more climate friendly high performance fuel developed by Aral, which Audi will be using as part of the pilot test at the DTM finale, has a composition of 50 percent being made up of high-quality renewable components derived from waste materials. Even so, in terms of its properties, it meets the quality standards of the “Aral Ultimate 102” fuel that has been prescribed in the DTM since 2005. It has a CO2 reduction potential of more than 30 percent compared to gasoline purely based on mineral oil.
“We did not have to make any modifications to the DTM engine and have not had the slightest problem on the test bench so far,” says Ulrich Baretzky. “Consequently, we are proving that low carbon fuels are also suitable for racing engines.” Audi has also been researching alternative fuels for road car production for several years. The company is working independently on projects for the production of e-gas, e-diesel and e-gasoline.