50mpg clean diesels for the USA. They're almost here!!!

Clean diesels: good.

Diesel-hybrid version: even better.

Except that the VW diesel hybrid is cancelled: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/vw-diesel-hybrid-kaput-golf-vi-details-revealed/
For the obvious reason: too expensive, at least until oil hits $200 or so.

Try this regarding the VW diesel hybrid cancellation:

http://tinyurl.com/6xlsst

One of the analysts on a business channel predicted oil over $200 by 2012. This guy really seemed to know what he was talking about. One of the announcers on the program tried to blow holes in his projections and failed miserably.

2012? We should be so lucky. I'll be shocked if it doesn't hit that price by the end of 2009.

A little OT:

About the diesel hybrid price problem ... going by MSRP I see that the base Rabbit is 16K. 30 extra HP, better tires and suspension upgrades gets you the GTI for an additional 7K. Or spend 33K for the V6 AWD R32.

It's not just VW. A base Mazda3 i Sport is 14.5K. Get some luxury bits, 8 extra HP and you can get the s Grand Touring for 20.8K. The 263HP Speed3 is 23K.

Toyota's base Camry with the 2.4l I4 and manual transmission is 18.7K. Drop another $9500 and you get the 3.5l V6/6A and luxury bits.

Ford's base F150 is 17.7K. A stretch cab, V8 and luxury bits (Lariat model) sets you back 30.4K. Or drop 36.8K for the Harley-Davidson model to get ... well, good question.

And not to be outdone, Saab offers yellow paint and luxury bits for only 3K extra.

But the extra 7-9K or whatever for an additional motor and batteries to hybridize the diesel is just asking too much.

Priorities. Let's let the free market determine what is best.

Is $200/barrel just around the corner? Perhaps. If I were an automaker I would be betting on the side of such a predicament and feverishly working on bringing highly efficient vehicles to market ASAP.

Why just a few years ago GM said hybrids were a dumb, money-losing idea. Recently Lutz confessed that GM missed the hybrid boat and "will not make that same mistake twice" when touting the Volt.

I say, car manufacturers bring us your best ideas- and let the free market sort it out. My money is on 100mpg diesel-hybrids- at least until BEV-enabling technology matures/becomes economically feasible for the mainstream (perhaps as early as 2020? Again, pure conjecture).

The Big 3 would have had a bunch of world-beaters if they had just stuck with the PNGV program.  Now look at them.

yup, you can lead a horse to water but...you know :)

We don't know for sure when the peak oil will occur, there is experts on both sides, but more and more experts agree that oil industry will be capacity constrained for geological but also financial as well as geopolitical reasons. Less and less peoples see the oil production going beyond 90millions bdp, when the demand will keep rising especially in emerging countries, then the oil industry will face a wall. The last news are pretty grim, (Saoudia don't want or can't increase prodduction, and it seems clear that Russia is close to its peak, Mexico is in decline as well as Norway and UK, Nigeria is in jeopardy, US keeps declining as it has been doing for the 35 past years and the list goes on). So the only solution is to play on the demand. Improves efficiency and oprimize use of car, not bigger than necessary, lighter, more streamlined, more passengers per car.

So yes the big 3 are facing a wall, there are clearly not ready to a fast rise in gas price. Plus peoples who intend to buy a car will probably wait until they see new more effcient model, so the 2 next years are going to be extremely rocky for GM, Ford and Chrysler...

Nice to see an energy efficient car being displayed thats a "production" model and not a "Concept car". I get tired of the Gee whiz bang, boy we'd really like to build this, wish cars being what companies brag about rather then the "look what actually built" vehicles. Good job VW. Now make the stupid thing so that the power windows don't fall down and I might just buy one.

Those concept cars serve a purpose. Tooling up for production is a hugely expensive commitment. Make one wrong move and you are done.

They say Peak Oil can only be seen in hind sight. We may have had Peak Oil and do not know it yet, or it may be out there by 2012, we will see.

Peak oil is a political half truth (Cant believe I just said that!?) Peak oil doesnt mean their wont be any oil left, just that the easy to find, and easy to refine stuff is gone. Peak oil means whats left is buried in hard to reach places and much harder to refine. Therefore once we reach "peak oil" gas will get infinately more expensive much faster.

I believe in peak oil, wish they had named it something else though. Peak oil sounds better for an ad campaign "The easy cheap stuff is gone" doesnt have nearly as nice a ring to it.

In cylinder pressure sensors, neat stuff.

Would anyone care to guess how the dual circuit EGR works....

I would guess the pressure of any EGR gas once vented into the intake manifold would be the pressure of the intake manifold. Or are they blowing it into the cylinder when the valve opens? EGR injection?

Should have looked before I "spoke":

EGR systems: http://www.sttemtec.com/index.php?show=1506_ENG&&page_anchor=http://www.sttemtec.com/p1506/p1506_eng.php

@Eliot: The term 'peak' is very apt. If you look at oil production of an average oil well over time, the production follows a Gaussian bell curve. When the production of all wells is put together to show world oil production, the result is also a bell curve. The peak of this bell curve represents the point in time at which maximum production occurs. This in no way implies that there will be no oil left, but rather, because of the symmetrical shape of a Gaussian function, that roughly half of existing oil has been used. Unfortunately, the demand for oil is independent of this curve, and will likely continue to increase rapidly for some time after peak production has been reached. The widening gap between supply and demand, in turn, will cause oil shortages and price increases to occur at an accelerating frequency until demand is adjusted, either through conservation, substitution of alternatives, economic disaster, or some combination of the three. Governments, businesses, and individuals alike would be well advised to make decisions based on this quite predictable reality.

The Big 3 would have had a bunch of world-beaters if they had just stuck with the PNGV program. Now look at them.

I am always astounded how far they have some with ICEs. Imagine how are we will go with other technologies in the future. :)

2002 TDI Jetta 50mpg, Biodiesel. And this technology is old.
Here's one for you. I was just looking at coal stoves to off set the cost of heating oil in the North East of the United States.

I figure if homes used PV with solar thermal heating and cooling, they could save enough natural gas to run a car 20,000 miles per year. That would eliminate that car as an oil consumer and not use one bit more natural gas in the process. If they spend $4000 per year now on gasoline they could pay back the system in less than 10 years.

The problem with "letting the market decide" is exactly what Henry Ford taught the Industrial Revolution. Until you make a lot of something available, people don't think about wanting it. Very few people are actually willing to be "the first on the block" unless they know that other folks on the block are getting one too.

Actually, at current prices we're at the point that making motor fuels from unconventional sources become economically practical.

Using research into cellulosic enzyme processing, agricultural plant waste and algae could be processed into diesel fuel, heating oil, gasoline and kerosene. That means instead of refining it from crude oil, a large fraction of the waste from agriculture (which would normally be burned or turned into fertilizer) could be a source of motor fuels.

Any word on using biodiesel in the BlueTDI? I've heard it both ways, that they will/they won't be allowed to use it. Thanks.