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Cool diesel sightings

post #1 of 8
6/26/08 at 10:08am
Thread Starter 

So we've posted a fair amount about seeing sweet sweet electric cars around.  But lately around San Francisco (meaning twice), there have been sightings of some cool diesels.

 

First....maybe a week or two ago, Deej and I were walking to a meeting and lo and behold!  Outside of the W Hotel was a Jetta TDI Diesel.  There wasn't anyone around to ask about it but Deej took these pictures on his cell phone:

 

 

 

That one was clearly a racer based on the Jetta Cup paint job.

 

Then...literally 10 minutes ago as I was walking into Huddler HQ...there was a Mercedes E320 BLUETEC Sedan.  I sadly was too enthralled to remember to take a picture...so you'll have to be satisfied with the description.  It was black and painted with all sorts of cool BLUETEC stuff (i.e. the "Clean Diesel" design and the statement "675 miles until the next fill up").  The guy sitting in the passenger seat leaned out the window and asked if I wanted a ride....but I figured I'd just come post about it instead.


Edited by stins - Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:12:58 GMT
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post #2 of 8
6/26/08 at 10:29am

Very neat!  But how could you pass up a ride! LOL!!

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post #3 of 8
6/26/08 at 10:41am

One thing I don't understand:

 

Diesel as a fuel is much more efficient than gasoline. Why, oh why, aren't we making Diesel-Electric hybrids? Why do hybrids run on an inefficient fuel? I don't understand!

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post #4 of 8
6/26/08 at 11:29am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by herodrx1:

Very neat!  But how could you pass up a ride! LOL!!

 

Haha, I know, right?!  I thought about it for about 2 seconds.  Then I decided...you know....it's probably not the most brilliant idea to get in a car with two strangers just because it's a cool clean diesel.  So instead I just asked how he liked it.  And then the light turned green.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by mattress:

One thing I don't understand:

 

Diesel as a fuel is much more efficient than gasoline. Why, oh why, aren't we making Diesel-Electric hybrids? Why do hybrids run on an inefficient fuel? I don't understand!

 

Yeah, you think that would be a logical step!  I was rather disappointed when they cancelled plans for the Jetta Golf Diesel-Hybrid.  It would have been pretty sweet.


Edited by stins - Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:32:09 GMT
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post #5 of 8
6/26/08 at 11:30am

It doesn't appear to be around the corner by any means, but I found this post about a Ford concept car called the Reflex:

 

 

0-60 in under 7 seconds AND 65 miles to the gallon...pretty cool to me.

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post #6 of 8
6/26/08 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattress:

One thing I don't understand:

 

Diesel as a fuel is much more efficient than gasoline. Why, oh why, aren't we making Diesel-Electric hybrids? Why do hybrids run on an inefficient fuel? I don't understand!


 

Emissions standards.  Aptera tried to make their plug-in hybrid with a diesel engine, but they couldn't find one that would pass California emissions tests.  Too much NOx and particulate emissions.

 

Now that clean diesels are becoming available, diesel-electric hybrids may be feasible.  However, in making the diesels clean, some of the fuel economy is sacrificed, so it will be interesting to see if they would be significantly better than gas-electric hybrids.

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post #7 of 8
6/26/08 at 12:34pm

Yeah - what I have read comes to the same conclusion:  emissions.  Once the emissions meet California standards, the mpg is only a little better than for regular gas - but the cost of the vehicle goes way up.   Maybe they will work it out - but with the line up of PHEV, BEV, and FC vehicles on the way, a hybrid diesel may end up being a could-have-been technology...

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post #8 of 8
6/26/08 at 3:03pm

shouldn't you get some sort of break on emmissions if your fuel economy is through the roof? maybe emmissions requirements should be measured by the mile?

 

ie, if you drive 100 miles in a 'dirty' diesel hybrid and burn 1.5 gallons of fuel and you drive 100 miles in a 'clean' SUV and burn 9 gallons of fuel which one puts out more pollution?


Edited by mattress - Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:04:06 GMT
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