Alternative fuels are increasingly replacing traditional fuels in car engines and are increasingly being chosen by people. We have several major alternative fuels in the market to choose from some of them are more popular than others, but they all have similar advantages - reducing fuel costs and reducing environmental pollution. We can distinguish six types of alternative fuels:

 

• Biodiesel

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel that can be manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled cooking grease for use in diesel vehicles.

 

• Electricity

Electricity can be used to power plug-in electric vehicles, which are increasingly available. Hybrids use electricity to boost efficiency.

 

• Ethanol

Ethanol is a widely used renewable fuel made from corn and other plant materials. It is blended with gasoline for use in vehicles.

 

• Hydrogen

Hydrogen is a potentially emissions- free alternative fuel that can be produced from domestic resources for use in fuel cell vehicles.

 

• Natural Gas

Natural gas is a domestically abundant gaseous fuel that can have significant fuel cost advantages over gasoline and diesel fuel.

 

• Propane

Propane is a readily available gaseous fuel that has been widely used in vehicles throughout the world for decades [1].

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Increasing demand for alternative fuels

 

We cannot deny that petrol and diesel are still the most popular fuels, but in recent years we have witnessed great changes in the choice of fuels by manufacturers to power their new cars. in the second quarter of 2018, new cars fuelled with petrol and diesel accounted for 93% [2], and in 2020 their number decreased to 75.5% [3].

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During the fourth quarter, registrations of electrically chargeable vehicles (ECV) in the EU jumped from 130,992 units in 2019 to almost half a million (+262.8%), surpassing hybrid electric cars in sales volume for the first time. This strong increase in demand for battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) – with registrations growing by 216.9% and 331.0% respectively – was largely driven by government stimuli for low and zero-emission vehicles. Indeed, some of the biggest gains were seen in countries with the most generous incentives. In Germany, for example, BEV registrations increased by over 500% in the last quarter of 2020.

 

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) saw an equally impressive increase during the fourth quarter, with sales doubling (+104.7%) from 212,612 units in 2019 to 435,260 last year, accounting for 15.1% of the EU car market. For the first time ever, more than one million units of both hybrid electric (1,182,792) and electrically chargeable (1,045,831) passenger cars were sold in the EU from January to December 2020.

 

Registrations of cars running on alternative fuels – ethanol (E85), liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas (NGV) – increased by 19.6% to 69,877 units in the EU during the fourth quarter. This was mainly the result of a notable increase in sales of LPG-fuelled cars (+69.5%), while registrations of natural gas-powered vehicles contracted during the same period (-35.3%).

 

All alternatively powered vehicles (APV) combined represented 34.0% of the EU car market in the fourth quarter, with almost one million units registered in total (an increase of 143.9% compared to 2019). With the exception of Cyprus, APV registrations rose across the entire EU from October to December 2020. Looking at the biggest car markets, major gains were posted by Germany (+236.6%), France (+156.7%) and Italy (+108.9%); all boosted by exceptional growth in sales of battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars at the end of the year [3].

 

These data clearly show that manufacturers are increasingly moving away from traditional fuels, mainly to electric or hybrid vehicles.

 

Although alternative fuels are not as popular as traditional ones, they can perfectly replace them and at the same time they are most often created from renewable sources as opposed to petrol and diesel. Despite the continued domination of traditional fuels, we see huge changes that will eventually replace these fuels almost completely. We must also remember that the branch of alternative fuels in the automotive industry is relatively young and is already dynamically developing.

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References are presented in the Reference section.