In order to continue to grow and reach more markets where electric vehicles do not yet have an expression, Tesla is developing a new gasoline engine powered only with synthetic fuels, which will be presented as early as 2025.
A decision motivated precisely by the advent of synthetic fuels that will have as a consequence, according to analysts, the postponement of the total electrification process of the automobile for many decades, and it is expected that it will only end in the next century.
Synthetic fuels guarantee minimal greenhouse gas emissions — after all, they use CO2 captured from the atmosphere as one of their main ingredients — eliminating many of the problems of using fossil fuels and making the “old man” combustion engine have an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The car world runs at various speeds and if in Europe and China the electric car appears as the “new normal” in the next 10 to 20 years, in other parts of the world the electric car is still a mirage and will continue to be so for a long time. Musk's expansionist plans for Tesla are thus compromised.
If you can't beat them, join them
To cover all the bases, Elon Musk has given the green light in recent weeks to the development, some would say unbelievable, of an unprecedented gasoline engine at Tesla.
An unprecedented move that left the brand's customers and fans awestruck, but not the markets — Tesla's shares are expected to take another leap in the coming days.
However, don't wait for a future model from the 100% brand… combustion. Future models with this gasoline engine will continue to be driven by electric motors. Yes, this gasoline engine will essentially function as a generator, taking the place of batteries. In other words, it will be a hybrid vehicle, as we've seen in other brands such as Nissan and Honda.
At the moment, information is still very scarce and it is not even possible to know what type of engine it is: will it be two- or four-stroke? Is it a cylinder or rotor engine? Speculation is high, but coming from Tesla, it will certainly be an “out of the box” solution.
We only know that all development will be optimized to use synthetic fuels, in this case synthetic gasoline, which due to its nature does not have the same impurities as petroleum-derived gasoline.
However, very recently, we've seen a prototype of the Model 3 (in the highlighted image) with the words “Hyper Hybrid” aside — is that how the technology will be known? According to internal sources, it is a preliminary prototype to which a small internal combustion engine was added (but not the one Tesla is developing) and the batteries removed, which served to demonstrate the operation of the entire system.
Gasoline engine with Portuguese rib and space technology
There is no place in the world where Portuguese is not spoken, and so is Fremont, California, where Tesla is based. The team brought together by Elon Musk to develop this gasoline engine is being led by a Portuguese: Álvaro Cambota.
Son of Portuguese emigrants, this mechanical engineer captured Musk's attention at SpaceX, where Álvaro Cambota was involved in the development of the Falcon 9 rocket's propulsion system.
Musk chose him to lead the team, as Cambota's involvement in the development of the Falcon 9's engines has led to important advances in technologies associated with combustion, which have applications in engines that can power automobiles.
Gigafactory for Tesla petrol engines on its way to Portugal?
Portugal may also have an additional role in relation to Tesla's gasoline engine. The contacts established between Tesla and the Portuguese State during the process for choosing a site for the construction of a Gigafactory in Europe — it ended up going to Berlin, Germany — means that Portugal is now at the forefront of building a Gigafactory… for gasoline engines.
The decision process is not over yet — more countries are being considered —, but the official announcement will take place precisely one year from now, on April 1, 2022. Tesla's gasoline engine will hit the market in 2025, so the factory will have to be ready sooner, still during 2024.
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