Automakers, suppliers meet to discuss diesel plans
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The aptly named Diesel Forecast is reporting on a diesel technology discussion involving BMW, Volvo, Audi, and Bosch, and the path that each may take to address the increasingly-stringent emission requirements in the U.S. and in Europe.
BMW, for its part, does not envision bringing over diesels to the US before calendar year 2008. The automaker wants to introduce a 50-state solution, and feels that selective catalyst reduction (SCR) will be the way to go to meet California's requirements - said to be the toughest diesel emissions standards in the world. Audi will also be exploring the use of SCR, and plans to use what it learns in developing a 50-state diesel to meet upcoming European requirements. Volvo basically doesn't know when it'll offer diesel in the US, as it feels that it is not in a position to shape the market. Too bad, because many would say that a small OEM is in the best position to shake up this segment of the market right now.
Mega-supplier Bosch, for its part, sees clean diesel as facing serious competition from gasoline homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) in the long term. In the shorter term, SCR and urea injection will work together with increasingly complex combustion-management techniques in diesel, but the supplier seems to feel that the rate of diesel technology improvement may be approaching the point of diminishing returns after the last decade of significant advancements.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cervus 2:27PM (5/08/2006)
This just shows how insane California's emission standards really are. We're basically committed to using gasoline cars instead of much more efficient diesels. Biodiesel, anyone? Not here. We have squashed any market beyond trucking. And even then, there's more stringent standards coming for heavy diesels in 2010.
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Howard Kerr 3:49PM (5/08/2006)
I hope all those folks who are whining about how car makers should just slap a fuel stingy diesel in all American cars so we can start getting good mileage, read this. BMW builds what is considered to be THE best diesel range of engines, yet even their engineers aren't able to just drop a diesel into the engine bay of an American-bound BMW.
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Greg Murphy 3:56PM (5/08/2006)
Yes, it to bad that even though a diesel makes less CO2 the polution laws are keeping an engine that gets 30-50% more miles to the gallon out of this country. The only concern I would have is if everyone did use diesel can we make enough?? Only so much comes from a barrel of crude. Biodiesel might help. I know Europe has to import a fair amount of diesel.
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Razib Ahmed 8:26PM (5/08/2006)
It is nice that car makers in USA are taking diesel serously. Diesel powered cars have now got a new popularity in another part of the world- India. Maruti Udyog (MUL), is soon going to launch diesel powered cars in the Indian market and General Motors and Toyota are thinking about it seriously too. Tata Motors has already a good diesel powered car in the Indian market. Now, Hyundai Motor is hoping that by producing diesel powered cars, it will improve its market share in India. (http://www.southasiabiz.com/2006/05/2006_the_year_of_diesel_powere.html). It seems that 2006 is going to be year of diesel powered cars in India.
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John 8:26PM (5/08/2006)
What is stopping them if there is a demand for better mileage motors? There is a population of drivers starving for the best motor vehicle combo, and enough money in the state of California to bye these vehicles.
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MikeW 8:59AM (5/09/2006)
What kind of compression ratio is needed from HCCI engines?
The new BMW 'K' motorcycle engine has a 13:1 compression ratio and no direct injection.
If California falls into the ocean, than can we have diesels?
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Eric Bryant 7:39PM (5/09/2006)
MikeW,
Are you asking about static compression ratio (SCR) or dynamic compression ratio (DCR)? SCR is a bit meaningless except when bench-racing.
For gasoline, I'm guessing that a DCR perhaps in the range of 12:1 to 15:1 would be required (9:1 generally being the accepted limit for street-based SI engines), based on published papers suggestion a SCR of around 15:1 to 19:1. Consider this to be little beyond a wild guess, and depending on the fuel and on the target temperature of the intake air these requirements could change dramatically.
Put more plainly - somewhere between gasoline SI and diesel.
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goat 12:23AM (5/10/2006)
The State of California should be sued over this issue, as they are forcing higher fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
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