Seems like Volkswagen and Audi are the ones doing the dominating. Does GM even sell any diesels that aren’t trucks?

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061218/FREE/61218022/1121/rss07&rssfeed=rss07

it talks about europe toughening CURRENT standards and needing particulate filters, which is what we need now.

They benefit because they lack any of the required emissions hoops that diesels do. The small company that Ford has been working with to launch this technology is looking for price points just $1000 above current engines, a price point that cannot be beat and will not be beat by diesels in the near or medium term. Hybrids might get closer to that in their second generation when you factor in the efficiency gains of Li+ batteries and other technologies, but diesels are, for the moment, expensive.

Diesels only offer about 30% improvement in efficiency in cars, so those new direct inject turbos set to be released in 2010 or 2011, might be a better bet for Ford’s emissions goals until diesel tech becomes less expensive. Trucks make sense because of use requirements and the diminishing costs of increasing the size of particulate filtering technology.

Also remember that when you compare European gas mileage to U.S. that you might be looking at Imperial gallons. I don’t think that any Focus over there gets 50 mpg and is still worth driving, although I imagine the American “acceptable” diesels probably average in the mid-40s, not out of the range of the potential on these direct injection turbos on the horizon.

I think it’s dumb to abandon research into clean diesel technology (and yes, California has much more stringent emissions standards than Europe, which does lower your prospects over here), but given that they don’t have much money left to burn through, I’d rather they take a stand, much like Toyota did with hybrids in the late 90s (hence the successful Gen II Prius) and make somethig really good. They can apply this technology just like diesel engines to hybrid systems, and these technologies combined with Ford’s industry leading work in fuel cells should be enough to keep them relevant for the next 10-15 years barring Field’s mullet jumping off his head and killing Alan Mullaly in a rage of envy.

I really wonder how much of this has to do with “the man”. I mean, any dim-bulb with half a clue and a few bucks can whip up batches of Bio-Diesel in his tool-shed, avoiding road tax, and avoiding foriegn oil all toghether. If more and more people went this route, and formed larger and larger Bio-diesel co-ops like we have here, Big Oil, and “the man” will miss thier cut entirely from more and more people. Less Diesel cars on the road = more money to the man. Extreme regulation on diesels = more money to the man.
Just a thought…

Yeap. And if you had the slightest clue of what you were talking about, you’d know why one can pass and the other cannot. Could have something to do with the emissions being different because the fuel is different. The term “particulate filter” coming up on a regular basis with discussion on diesels obviously doesn’t help you figure out that the two engines are clearly not the same technology. I certainly wouldn’t expect that after you missed the difference in fuel on your own question in the first place.

In perhaps 15 years lots of people will suffer as a result of increased fuel price volatility. Maybe it’ll be 2020, but surely by 2012 after the oncoming oil supply gluts (around 2008-2010) flood the market. We’ll casually watch as he world’s supergiant fields like Ghawar, Cantarell, decline at 5, 8, 10% a year maybe. But no, technology will save us without anyform of adaptation. That’s everyone’s hopes anyway. Guess we’ll be looking at new coal-to-liquids plants, ports for LNG shipments, new shale developments etc.

We’d better hope global warming is just a liberal fallacy aimed at growing big government. If not, finding gasoline will be the least of worries. I’m actually more concerned about food and water supply growth….

maybe in 1989 but NOT today the catalytic converters have been developed to give the same carbonHZ8 as a similar displacement gasoline engine , why do you tell such stupid lies? dooyou work for ford?

Its more to do with the oil companies profit margins than anything else. diesel=less profit

its the same reason why the US have not signed up to the Kyoto agreement. $$$$$$$$$

New here, eh?

This is nothing.

Damn hippie liberals.