McLaren thinks synthetic fuel could save the engine as we know it

The technology could be a battery-electric alternative and still reduce emissions when taking battery production into account.

The automotive industry is largely focused on one area when it comes to future powertrains: battery-electric technology. A few still plant to keep a couple of eggs in the fuel-cell basket, too, but that's largely it.

Leave it to McLaren, responsible for some of the wildest supercars on the market, to champion something a little different. The firm's Chief Operating Officer, Jens Ludmann, told Autocar in a Thursday report that synthetic fuel is something McLaren is interested in.

How interested? The company plans to produce a development car that runs on synthetic fuel to showcase the technology's potential. Ludmann says the fuel would require minimal tweaks to today's internal combustion engine, and it'd still be much better for the environment from a CO2 standpoint. Ludmann says synthetic fuel is particularly viable if companies look at CO2 production included in not only an EV's lifecycle, but the EV's battery production. The fact is, building batteries still isn't that great for the environment as we continue to source more materials for the energy storage devices.