{"id":21004,"date":"2013-07-08T09:30:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T14:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=21004"},"modified":"2013-07-08T09:30:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T14:30:26","slug":"new-diesel-engine-technology-to-erase-the-memory-of-oldsmobile-diesels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/07\/08\/new-diesel-engine-technology-to-erase-the-memory-of-oldsmobile-diesels\/","title":{"rendered":"New diesel engine technology to erase the memory of Oldsmobile diesels"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Economist<\/em><\/a> has a glowing overview of new diesel engines for cars:<\/p>\n

NOT to belittle the success Tesla Motors has had with its Model S luxury electric car \u2014 outselling its petrol-powered equivalents since being launched last year \u2014 the prospects for battery-powered vehicles generally may never shine quite as bright again. Babbage believes their day in the sun is about to be eclipsed by, wait for it, the diesel engine.<\/p>\n

Surely not that dirty, noisy, smelly, lumbering lump of a motor that was difficult to start in the winter? Certainly not. A whole new generation of sprightly diesels \u2014 developed over the past few years \u2014 bear no resemblance to your father\u2019s clattering, oil-burner of an Oldsmobile. It is no exaggeration to say that, with its reputation for unreliability and anaemic performance, the Olds 4.3-litre diesel from the late 1970s single-handedly destroyed the reputation of diesel engines in America for decades to come. Quite possibly, it also contributed to Oldsmobile\u2019s own demise.<\/p>\n

Later this year, Americans will get their first chance to experience what a really advanced diesel is like \u2014 and why Europeans opt for diesels over hybrids, plug-in electrics and even petrol-powered cars. The leader of the new pack is the Mazda 6, completely redesigned for 2014, with the choice of either a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine or a 2.2-litre turbo-charged diesel. The diesel has 30% better fuel economy and provides oodles more pulling power. Good as the petrol version is, motorists who choose it over the diesel will miss out on a lot.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

With its old 1.4-litre diesel engine, the Volkswagen Polo still holds the record for being the most frugal non-electric car in Britain and the rest of Europe \u2014 with a fuel economy on the combined cycle of just 3.8 litres\/100km (equivalent to 61.9 miles per US gallon). The Toyota Prius hybrid? A lowly twentieth on the league table of the most economical fuel-sippers, with 4.2 litres\/100km, along with higher emissions of carbon dioxide. The 19 cars having better fuel economy than the Prius hybrid are all clean diesels.<\/p>\n

Babbage fully expects the new generation of clean, low-compression diesels to raise the fuel-economy bar by a further 20% or more. That will put diesels on much the same footing \u2014 on an equivalent miles-per-gallon basis \u2014 as many of the electric vehicles available today. Their big advantage will be that they will come with none of the range anxiety and recharging difficulties to worry about. Roll on the day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economist has a glowing overview of new diesel engines for cars: NOT to belittle the success Tesla Motors has had with its Model S luxury electric car \u2014 outselling its petrol-powered equivalents since being launched last year \u2014 the prospects for battery-powered vehicles generally may never shine quite as bright again. Babbage believes their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[111,174],"class_list":["post-21004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-cars","tag-innovation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-5sM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21005,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21004\/revisions\/21005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}