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Pickups Diesels Diesels in the News
8144 messages, Last post on Dec 03, 2009 at 4:39 PM
You are in the Diesels Forum. Your Host is kcram
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Sep 29, 2008 7:27 am) When the diesel car DEMAND gets strong enough, the cars will be here. There is no other major cause than merely a lack of buyers. |
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Sep 29, 2008 7:27 am) So truly "WE" are NOT serious about better fuel mileage when we continue to have a defact 22 mpg fleet wide with a stated 27 mpg standard. |
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Now diesel will get more efficient and cleaner: Amazing A small gadget that can be fitted to diesel engines boosts fuel efficiency by up to 19% and can make them run more cleanly, engineers report. A weak electric field is used to make fuel less viscous before it is injected into the engine. That makes it possible to spray smaller drops that burn more completely. The device was developed at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and costs less than $200 to produce. In tests over six months on a 2002 Mercedes-Benz 300D sedan, a prototype device increased fuel efficiency by 12 to 15% under urban driving conditions, and 19% in highway driving – taking it from 32 to 38 miles per gallon. "This is the biggest efficiency increase since the advent of fuel injection," claims Rongjia Tao from Temple University. The device has been licensed to Californian firm Save the World Air, which is now testing it in road haulage vehicles. Fluctuating flow An electric field makes diesel thinner because some molecules in the fuel become charged and aggregate together, reducing their overall surface area. That means less friction between them, and a less viscous fuel. Tao and colleagues believe fuel efficiency gains were lower under stop-start urban driving conditions because the rate at which fuel flows through their device constantly varies. They are working on a version that varies its electric field to match fuel flow rate and keep viscosity constantly reduced. Matt Thomas of CFD Research Corporation works on similar fuel electrification techniques. He says fitting the device to new cars will not produce such spectacular efficiency gains, but adds that it would still cut emissions. "[If] you charge spray prior to fuel injection you could lower particulate emissions by as much as a factor of 10."
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More thus-far unfounded "yakking" about the supposed high demand for diesel cars in the USA "The message is clear: the time for clean diesel is now," said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum. "With only a few choices available to consumers, diesels have already dramatically cut energy consumption and reduced CO2 emissions. With more choices on the way, Americans will continue to benefit as we continue to introduce the public to this new generation of clean diesel cars and light truck choices." Only half of those surveyed, for instance, believe diesel-powered vehicles get better gas mileage than gasoline-powered vehicles. New diesel technologies, in fact, get up to 40 percent better fuel efficiency. For the survey, pollsters from Yankelovich Partners interviewed 1,003 Americans in the national sample and 403 adults in California between July 14 and 21 for the survey. The sampling error is 3.1 percent plus or minus. "Most people are surprised to learn that diesel pickup trucks outsold hybrids 2.5 to 1 from 2003-2007 and saved 21 times more fuel than all hybrids combined," Schaeffer said. Count me among the group who would be "surprised" by that statement. He's obviously not talking about in the USA - must be talking about worldwide. We can rest assured, however, that if true, he forgot to mention that the pickups "out-polluted" the hybrids by huge amounts, too. |
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Replying to: larsb (Sep 29, 2008 9:41 am)
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Replying to: houdini1 (Sep 29, 2008 5:56 pm) They have the diesel/electric thing down & use regenerative braking. Let's see, they've been available & in increasing use since the early/mid '50's, so I guess the concept is only about 50 years "behind the times," as they used to say.
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Replying to: cdnpinhead (Sep 29, 2008 6:25 pm) kcram - Pickups Host |
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"GM sales fall 16% and that's the good news FORD, CHRYSLER OFF 30%-PLUS"... (on line version) "Toyota, Ford, Chrysler's September sales each fall more than 30 percent" link title by Nick Bunkley New York Times VW TDI sales sell ALL they can get!
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Replying to: ruking1 (Oct 02, 2008 11:19 am) So would the Prius if 'Yota did not have a battery supply issue. Prius Battery Shortage There is no denying that the market for fuel-efficient cars is strong. If there were more TDIs and more Priuses available, the sales numbers for both those cars would shoot up.
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 02, 2008 12:09 pm)
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