It should come as no surprise
that Bosch board member Benrd Bohr is optimistic about diesel’s future prospects; the company has heavily invested in
diesel technology. The folks at Diesel Forecast had a chance to sit down with Dr. Bohr and discuss where
he thinks the market is headed.
Details after the jump…
Among the things we learn is that Bohr believes strongly in the use of urea injection, as he feels it is the most
effective method to reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions. That technique, of course, has run into some resistance here in the U.S., since the EPA thinks that
the American public can’t perform a simple maintenance task every 10-15,000 miles (sadly, they’re probably right). He
also states that Bosch is working with “two of the Big Three” on midsize SUV diesel applications that will
meet the 2007 EPA requirements, which indeed is exciting news. Anyone want to guess who it might be? (My money’s
on GM and DCX.) Bohr thinks that a diesel market share of 20% by 2015 is said to be possible, but aggressive
(he notes that diesel market penetration increased by a full 1% last year, based mostly on heavy-duty light truck
sales).
Probably the most interesting tidbit, though, is talk of an engine that would utilize homogenous
charge compression ignition for part of the operational envelope (low to medium load), with “normal
combustion” utilized elsewhere. This is viewed as a way to greatly reduce NOx and particulate emissions. It’s said
to be “further down the road” than ’07, so maybe we’ll see something by the end of the decade.