Michael,

That is not very true about diesel emissions.

Europe is having a more balanced approach to emissions and energy safety. The more recent diesels in the European market are very advanced and they comply with very strict emission regulations like EURO6.

There are other market forces to explain the success o diesels in Europe, for example:

If you have to pay around 6$ per gallon what car would you choose?
A - A diesel car with 272hp, 560Nm of torque and 45mpg.
B - A gas car with 150hp with 180Nm of torque and 27mpg.

If you have chosen (A) you also get as a bonus:

-Slightly Higher NOx emissions; BUT!!!! you also get

-Less CO2 emissions – A important one if you believe that Global warming is a bad thing (sea level rising, more frequent hurricanes, etc);
-Less CO emissions;
-Less benzene emissions (a very powerful carcinogen);
-Less emissions of alkenes (e.g., ethene), carbonyls (e.g., formaldehyde), and semivolatiles like polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, many of which are known or suspected carcinogens).
-Less dangerous particles (although more visible because of their greater size) because you can use a cheaper DPF as is now becoming more common in Europe.

The emission levels from diesel engines tend to remain more-or-less constant throughout the useful life of the engine, whereas gasoline engines have many more emission-related components, which deteriorate and lead to higher and higher emissions, as the engine gets older and drift from stochiometric equilibrium.

Dear Miquel,

We talk about a marginal CO2 difference between Diesel and gasonline powered cars! But in average 10 times more NOx emmissions!
http://www.bund.net/lab/reddot2/pdf/autowerbung0406.pdf
page 20 (Annex page 2-3.

Emissions of cars year 2005: 2005:http://www.kba.de/Abt3_neu/KraftfahrzeugStatistiken/Verzeichnisse/Emiss_2006_int.pdf (in English and German, the GM brand in Germany is Opel).

Air pollution in European cities:
http://reports.eea.europa.eu/technical_report_2006_1/en/technical_1_2006.pdf

Furthermore, I think we won´t stop useing oel in the foreseeable future. So it is mandatory to burn the fossile fuels with the least possible amount of toxic emissions.

Until now, the Diesel is "protected" be far lower emission standards than in force for the gasoline powered cars. Furthermore, Diesel oel is granted tax concessions in some European countries. (Certainly not to safe the shores of the Netherlands)

And please compare a "Turbo-Diesel" with an "Turbo-Otto". For example take the 170HP VW TSI gasoline (1,4l dissplacement) against the similar powerful 2.0TDI Diesel (2l dissplacement)in the same car. And that does HP tell us than driving from A to B on a high way useing cruise control? How much are the engine delivering for let´s say 70mph? 30HP or 170HP?

And as I mentioned, Toyota is already one the way of "cleaning" up the Diesel!
The question that remains to be answered is, wether a clean Diesel has a future in the Hybrid technologie? If yes I would have no objections. Maybe the near future is a Toyota Hybrid with electric motors to propell the car and a clean Diesel engine as an APU to charge the batteries.

What I aks for is just a clean Diesel. Unfortunately dirty Diesels are supported because of politico-economical issues that the some Europeans pursue.

Back to the initial position: The Aussies get there dirty Diesel-Holden now. No clean one! This one would hardly help to bring the amount of C02 output down in down under but could increase air pollution significantly. So lets rather wait for the clean Holden Diesels which could hit the market in 2 or 3 years.

Btw, there is no EURO 6 on the horizone now. They are just talking about EURO 5, that´s it. The current standard is EURO 4.

Hey Folks,

Here is a brifing about Euro5 and Euro6.

http://www.transportenvironment.org/docs/Factsheets/2004/EURO5andEURO6Briefing.pdf

Bruno

I agree that most Americans are not aware of the FE car options in other countries. Will the US always be in a dominant position to obtain cheap oil? When oil goes to $6/g the US will consider offering FE vehicles.

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