GFerg

Low-sulfur diesel arrives


WASHINGTON -- A barrier to expanded sales of diesel-powered vehicles in the United States fell last week.

A federal rule that took effect Thursday, June 1, requires refineries to remove nearly all the sulfur from most of the diesel fuel they produce for highway use. The new limit is 15 parts per million, down from 500. The ultralow-sulfur fuel must represent at least 80 percent of sales of diesel fuel at filling stations beginning Oct. 15.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../60605009/1041

mmarshall

While it will not knock hybrids out of the market, low-sulfur diesel is NOT going to be good news for them...trust me.
We've discussed this for quite some time and knew the low-sulfur fuel was coming.....I'm glad to see it about ready get rolling .

I've said for years that diesels can give comparable mileage to gas-electric hybrids with less complexity...and now the cleaner fuel will help the emission problems as well.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Now how about some diesel hybrids with 90mpg?

spwolf

but you cant sell any of the diesels for 2007 yet, since no diesel vehicle so far complies with 2007 regulations, which is why none of the VW's diesel lineup will be available for MY 2007..

mmarshall

Well, the low-sulfur fuel was mandated FOR the 2007 regulations. Now that is is almost here we are one step closer to meeting them.

spwolf

yes, but no car on the market today meets them :-).

doug_999

But they will -even VW has said they will be back in 2008. The US government wants the diesels to abide by the same emissions as regular cars. This is a good thing and now that we have fuel like yours, we will get this. As pointed out, real world mileage is equivalent to the hybrids and the overall complexity, cost to manufacture, and of course, overall environmental impact will be considerably less with the diesels.

spwolf

how will enivoromental impact be less? No it will not - in fact, hybrids are a lot more enviromentally sound that diesels - as published by German ADAC, a lot more... While future diesels will have regulations same as petrol cars, that still does not make them as clean as hybrids, not even close...

Plus, with increased emissions equipment, new diesels will be more expensive than before - up to $1,000. Considering how close Jetta TDI is to Prius in pricing - jetta with 6 year old TDI technology, new Jetta with new TDI engine and new emissions equipment should not be much cheaper than Prius, if any at all.

Factor in more expensive fuel for diesels, and it is not all that sound...

A lot of European craze for diesels come from few interesting things - in many countries cost of diesel fuel is subsized to be lower than cost of petrol, and in some, even taxes for diesel cars are less.

Now, diesels are cool and I am driving one at the moment, but they are as hyped as hybrids. They are expensive to buy, they are more expensive to maintain and they also get lower mpg than their EPA claims. They also have a lot more issues than petrol cars, with turbo's and transmission.

If the price of gas was the same here as in US, I would definetly get V6 and not an freaking tractor...

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

One more nail in the coffin of hybrid hype.

tic tic tic...

mmarshall

Agreed, bit.....one more nail, but the coffin is not sealed YET. Still got a couple nails to go.

doug_999

The actual energy and enviornmental impact of hybrids are much higher than you think.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...1dd8takes.html

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Doug, great article.

And this high energy consumption is on the FRONT side of building hybrids.

Wait till someone tries disposing of a coffin full of nasty NiMH clunker batteries.

Lithium Ion hybrid batteries are coming soon though which will should help with weight and size.

But the sheer complexity of a hybrid drivetrain is ludicrous for a passenger vehicle. It's certainly an amazing feat of engineering, but the benefits just don't outweigh the cost or complexity.