Volkswagen has a vision for how ethanol can help achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner, which includes research on reforming ethanol to create hydrogen for fuel cells.

“It’s not about technology, it’s about what you put as fuel into the car,” said Pablo Di Si, Executive Chairman, Volkswagen Latin America, during an address at the National Ethanol Conference last week. “We’re going to need solar, we’re going to need water, we’re going to need biofuels, we’re going to need ethanol. The more sources for renewable energy we have, the better off we’re going to be.”

Di Si says Volkswagen is doing research and development on “how we can form ethanol into a fuel cell or how can we make batteries out of (sugarcane) bagasse.”

Listen to Di Si’s address to the NEC here:
NEC22 Pablo Di Si, Volkswagen (22:57)