Diesel News: POST HERE

[greggNJ]

Some pretty interesting diesel news here. My wife will be getting a new vehicle in the next year or two. She's been leaning toward the Q5 and I've been trying to persuade her get a Grand Cherokee. Seems like both will be available with diesel by the time we buy. It will be a hard sell to get her in a diesel, but a diesel GC would make a nice hand-me-down for me a few years later

[haven]

John and Helen Taylor, hyper mileage experts from Australia, have just driven a stock VW Passat TDI 1600 miles from Texas to Virginia without refueling. That's a new record for the longest distance achieved on a single tank of fuel in a conventional passenger car, and translates to 84 mpg. (The EPA rates the diesel Passat at 43 mpg in highway driving.)

The Passat TDI uses VW's ubiquitous 2.0L four cylinder diesel. The Taylors chose a six speed manual transmission. To simulate a typical drive by a couple on vacation, the Taylors carried about 120 lb of luggage to the trunk.

The Taylors took turns driving during the day, in normal traffic conditions, along Interstate highways. The route began in Houston, passed east through the Gulf States, then north along the eastern seaboard to Virginia.

[haven]

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/16...l-for-the-u-s/

Here's a web page that says Kia is thinking about adding a diesel to their Optima sedan. The diesel is a 1.7L that has 230 ft lb of torque in European trim, and returns about 40 Miles per US gallon on the highway.

The problem is that Kia already sells a hybrid version of the Optima in USA, and it has mpg and performance similar to the diesel. The Optima hybrid has a 2.5L 4 cylinder gas engine that produces 195 ft lb of torque, and an electric motor that can add up to 150 ft lb more. The EPA rates the Optima Hybrid at 40 mpg highway. The Optima Hybrid uses Lithium Polymer cells in its second battery, so the battery is smaller and lighter than the battery in most hybrid cars.

The Optima Hybrid costs about $6000 more than the base Optima, but it's better equipped. The Hybrid costs about $2500 more than a similarly equipped gas model. That's similar to the price premium VW charges for their diesel engine in the Jetta and Passat. And diesel fuel costs more than regular gas, of course.

So the question facing Kia is, Are there enough customers for an Optima with diesel engine, when it doesn't offer real-world advantages over the Hybrid? Perhaps the answer is yes, if the diesel can be used in several models.

[Saiyan66]

I wouldn't say it doesn't offer real world advantages over the hybrid. The 40mpg offered by the diesel is based on the EPA fuel mileage calculations. The thing with EPA fuel mileage estimates is that they are WRONG. In California, our gas vehicles get under the EPA numbers because of our stupid gasoline. But the diesel cars like the VW are getting much more than the EPA numbers in the real world. I know they adjusted the way they calculate those numbers back in 2008, but I think they need to do it again and it should be state specific. My wifes car picks up 5mpg as soon as we get on Oregon gas.

[Bill Beers]

...My wifes car picks up 5mpg as soon as we get on Oregon gas.

It would probably do even better on gas from somewhere else: We've been 10% ethanol year round since 2008. They did change it in 2010 so that gas stations that wanted to could sell unblended premium, (91+ Octane.) You can find those stations here: http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=OR

[1911]

But the diesel cars like the VW are getting much more than the EPA numbers in the real world.

My 2010 VW Jetta TDI gets 42 mpg pretty regularly close to home/around town and commonly gets 48-49 mpg on a road trip. Not babying it or "hypermiling" either.

[Saiyan66]

Thats funny. 146 pure gas stations in Oregon. 5 in California. I have to move SOON.

[pskhaat]

How about a GASOLINE/PETROL compression ignition engine?

http://www.technologyreview.com/ener...nld=2012-05-17

Why would not the very same technology be just as applicable to Diesel for even more efficiency? There is some fundamental FUD in the article, but informative.

[haven]

Nice find!

With modern computer control, the gasoline direct injection, compression ignition engine can work. Here's an article about GM working with a Chinese university lab on this sort of engine, using a technique of multiple injections of gasoline in each compression/ignition stroke. Multiple smaller ignitions produce less pollution byproducts, if I'm reading the article correctly.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012...-20120427.html

[Regcabguy]

Oregon mandates 5% biodiesel in their diesel but I only ran it a short while before heading back to Ca. I have noticed an increase in mileage running Az and Ut fuel. It appears to foam up more than our eco crap.

The folly of ethanol is that it requires more energy to refine than it gives off in energy. The farmers are happy,but that's about it. A retired employee of the EPA was on tv saying there are 30+ gasoline blends the refiners must produce. He argued that emissions know no borders and that a half dozen would suffice easily. What a crock.