Quote:
Originally Posted by PhishPhood
Almost all of these 1 million vehicles are trucks, which is where diesels offer it's best benefit. LPVs ( light passenger vehicles ) are a tiny tiny blip in NA.
GM and Ford and Toyota all have announced that for LPVs their strategy is based on improving traditional gasser technology and hybrids. Diesels are out for LPVs. The reason is that the combination of improving gasser technology then adding a hybrid technology can improve fuel economy by 40+% at no additional cost in fuel.
The additional cost of the hybrids is roughly equal to the addtional cost of the diesel engine plus the cost of the additional emissions equipment required for diesels. But then the hybrids don't need premium-priced diesel fuel. They do just fine with RUG.
Now if there was significant production of biodiesel from algae here in NA I'd be all over it in an instant. I think that this may be 10+ yrs away.
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Over the last 5 days diesel has been within a $0.18 per gallon differiential of gasoline (87 octane).
In fact, I can purchase diesel $0.10 cheaper than gasoline ... OR ... E10 within 4 miles of our home! How does $3.91 per gallon sound for diesel?
Do I want a diesel passenger vehicle ... you can bet on it, with a 1.8 liter or under engine! And good sources of bio diesel make it even better!
I still think this is a thought provoking question!
Is it reasonable to assume that these "diesel fans" (current US diesel pickup/van buyers) would demand gasoline engines for their passenger transport applications ... IF ... 45 mpg (or better) combined average diesel passenger vehicles were available? 