Is the US ready to accept diesel?

By: Glenn Brooks, Monday, September 27, 2010, AutomotiveWorld.com "Hybrids are costly and although sales are strong in the US and Japan, globally they are not so successful. Of the 60 million vehicles built a year, just 1% are hybrids."

So said Mazda president and CEO Takashi Yamanouchi at the New York auto show earlier this year. With its sole hybrid model, the Tribute HEV, having recently been withdrawn from the US market due to disappointing sales, Mazda has been brave enough to address a situation many rivals remain in denial over. While no-one doubts the success of the Toyota Prius in both the US and Japan, this car is the sole exception to the global reality of hybrid vehicles being little more than pricey niche models.

Honda, Toyota's main rival in gasoline-electric technology, has tried to emulate the success of the Prius with its CR-Z, Insight and Civic Hybrid models. But with fewer than 5,000 Civic Hybrids and 15,000 Insights sold in the US in the first eight months of 2010, even American Honda would hesitate to label those numbers a good result.

It would be surprising if VW wasn’t planning to build diesel engines at its new Mexican powertrain plant.

Some of the reason why the fizz has gone out of US market hybrid sales is the end of tax credits for most brands. The cars are also typically high-priced and, with the weight of two propulsion systems onboard, are often none-too-economical in the freeway conditions typical of many owners' daily commutes.

Perhaps another, equally unseen factor is also contributing to declining hybrid sales: the US consumer's endless desire for novelty. Once seemingly everyone has a Prius it's time to find The Next Big Thing. Could that be diesel? The received wisdom that Americans dislike compression-ignition cars is outmoded as anyone who takes even a casual look at the recent sales figures for Volkswagen of America.

It is also worth noting the wording of VW's recent statement concerning its forthcoming 330,000/annum 'engine' plant that's due to come on stream in Silao, Mexico in 2013. No doubt the majority of engine production will be gasoline units but with sales of its diesel models rising rapidly in North America and all those TDI engines currently being imported from Europe, it would be surprising indeed if VW wasn't planning to also build diesels at Silao.

Volkswagen may have the diesel segment to itself for the foreseeable future

With 23% of its annual US sales already diesel and plans to lift its overall annual numbers to 800,000 vehicles by 2018, VW could even have much of this market to itself for the foreseeable future: neither General Motors, Ford, Toyota nor any other major player has plans to manufacture passenger car diesel engines in North America.

Until Volkswagen starts building diesel engines in Mexico and/or the US, we just don't know what the true potential for vehicles like the Jetta TDI (presently 25% of the car’s average 11,000 monthly sales in 2010) or Audi A3 TDI (fully 50% of sales in August) might be: much of the exchange rate volatility from imports of European engines is currently passed on to the US consumer in the form of high stickers for such models.

As the prices of diesel cars in the US market fall, as surely they will, so their popularity will grow. In the premium segment, the signs are already unmistakable. BMW, which had not offered a diesel in the US for 24 years, quietly introduced the 335d and X5 xDrive35d in 2009. Despite limited promotion, sales have surged. Lexus, the long time leading premium brand is no doubt already feeling alarmed, saddled as it is with slow-selling hybrids such as the HS 250h and LS 600h but without even one diesel offering: last month, BMW became the US market's number one premium brand.

Source;
http://www.automotiveworld.com/news/environment/83958-is-the-us-ready-to-accept-diesel

Diesel Deserves Better

Alot of people ask me about to update the diesel issue (more accurately, why there isn't a Honda diesel in the North American market), so I thought that this would be of interest to a few of you....
Love is blind. Environmental policy should not be.

Falling in love and being monogamous usually is a good thing, but when it comes to public policy, it should not be allowed.

Nowhere is it clearer than with the Obama Admin.’s head-over-heels infatuation with electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. It continues to lavish money and attention on everything electric while it appears to forsake all others that also can play a role in reducing U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions.

Incentives aimed at encouraging EV development and sales are crucial to their success, and we support them, but the U.S. government should not be settling down with only one technology just yet.

“I understand why political leaders have fallen in love with hybrids and electrics. But this may be the one time you’ll hear someone in Washington say it shouldn’t be a monogamous relationship,” says Johan de Nysschen, president-Audi of America.

Audi and parent Volkswagen AG have EVs and HEVs in the pipeline, but that doesn’t stop de Nysschen from dissing cars such as the Chevy Volt and declaring himself “the world’s biggest diesel advocate.”

De Nysschen’s point is that EVs are too expensive and impractical for the average consumer, and their widespread use is decades away. He adds that with most U.S. electricity generated by coal-fired power plants, EVs’ benefit to the environment is overrated.

Meanwhile, de Nysschen says diesels can provide big carbon-dioxide reductions almost immediately without big sacrifices by consumers.

Like most executives of auto makers based in Europe, de Nysschen is chagrined by diesel’s lack of acceptance in the U.S. About half of all new vehicles sold in Europe are powered by compression-ignition engines.

Because they are 25%-30% more efficient than comparable gasoline engines, diesels have had a profound impact on Europe’s fleet fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

Yet even though the newest diesels debuting in the U.S. on Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes vehicles are proving oil burners can meet California’s emissions regulations for oxides of nitrogen and particulates, the toughest in the world, the Obama Admin. can’t bring itself to introduce the “D word” into the public dialog on climate change.

Even worse, California air-quality regulators, who are aggressively pursuing local state initiatives to curb greenhouse gases, continue to devise new regulatory hurdles that hurt diesels rather than make them part of the solution.

As it stands now, the California Air Resources Board’s LEV III (low emissions vehicle) mandate will make it nearly impossible to sell diesel-powered vehicles in California beginning in 2014, just one new-product cycle away. Auto makers are hoping to convince CARB to bend.

After another round of Ward’s 10 Best Engines testing where we drove three incredibly good new diesels and named two to our 2010 list (as well as two HEVs), we have to insist the Obama Admin. back away from its singular devotion to electricity and at the very least tell CARB to moderate LEV III standards to accommodate diesels.

Long ago, Europe decided the fuel-economy and CO2-reduction benefits of diesel were more important than its drawback of higher NOx emissions. The Obama Admin. should do the same.

Love is blind. Environmental policy should not be.

Source;
http://wardsauto.com/commentary/diesel_deserves_better_091228/
By Drew WinterWardsAuto.com, Dec 28, 2009 9:51 AM

2009 Acura TSX / Euro Accord to get i-Dtec Diesel Motor

For those of you who don't now, the Acura TSX is the European Honda Accord, and it looks like the diesel will make it's introduction into the North American market under the Acura badge.

“All along, we’ve said there would be a diesel in Acura,” said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. “The whole direction is to separate Acura and Honda more. In five to six years, Acura will be a tier 1 luxury brand. The face of Acura will be totally different.”

Honda will also introduce a V6 diesel in 2010 for the Acura TL, the MDX as well as some Honda vehicles including the Accord.

The Honda i-DTEC engine meets the ultra-strict U.S. EPA Tier II Bin 5 emission standards without on-board storage of urea.

Popular Mechanics; The Case for Diesel: Clean, Efficient, Fast Cars (Hybrids Beware!)

I stumbed across a good article via AutoblogGreen for 12.28.07 about "Hybrids, beware of diesels". I find this interesting since Honda has been really bringing the developement of 'clean diesel' engines to the forefront. Here's a link to a previous post of mine;
http://thehondaportal.blogspot.com/2007/09/clean-diesel-to-north-america-2010.html

Here are some highlights of the article;
-Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago.
-Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. The new cars run as well as their gasoline-powered competitors. And as for the emissions problems of the past—well, the dirty bird of fossil fuels isn’t so dirty anymore.
-The fuel contains more energy per unit volume than gasoline, and diesel engines operate at higher compression ratios than gasoline engines—typically 14:1 to 25:1, compared to 8:1 to 12:1. (The compression ratio is the relationship between the volume of the cylinder when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke and the volume when it’s at the top.) The higher the compression ratio, the more mechanical energy an engine can squeeze from its fuel/air mixture. So each time the mixture in a diesel engine’s cylinder ignites, the car gets a slightly bigger push than it would in a gasoline engine. That means it takes less fuel to move the car down the road. It also means that the engine generates a lot of power even when it isn’t cycling fast—and that’s the source of the beefy low-end torque these vehicles are famous for.
- A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates found that in 2007, 23 percent of U.S. car buyers were considering a clean diesel for their next purchase, up from 12 percent the year before.
-“This is going to be remembered as the decade when we transformed diesel.”

The Coming Diesel Invasion
AUDI A4 SEDAN
Engine: 3.0-liter V6 Target Release Date: 2008This 240-hp turbocharged direct-injected engine will also be available in the full-size Audi Q7 sport utility.
BMW 3 SERIES SEDAN
Engine: 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline Six Target Release Date: 2008BMW plans to release this 3.0-liter in 5 and 6 Series models in 2008 as well. It reportedly gets more than 35 mpg.
CADILLAC CTS SEDAN
Engine: 2.9-liter TDI V6 Target Release Date: 2009Look for clean diesel also in the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and GM light-duty pickups, around 2010.
FORD F-150 PICKUP
Engine: 4.4-liter V8 Target Release Date: 2009Derived from the Euro-spec 3.6-liter currently used in Land Rovers, which get around 31 mpg on the highway.
HONDA ACCORD SEDAN
Engine: 2.2-liter i-DTEC Target Release Date: 2009The British version gets 51.4 mpg in combined city/highway driving. The hybrid Civic gets 50 mpg.
SATURN AURA SEDAN
Engine: To be determined Target Release Date: 2010The Aura’s Euro twin, the Opel Vectra, gets more TDI options in ’09, which will transfer to the model coming here.

Here's a link to the full article, it's a good read;
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4237945.html