Gas 2.0

Unique, clever and straight-forward engineering has resulted in three Volvo models ready for the road.

These fuel-sipping marvels feature a 1.6 litre diesel engine along with aerodynamicly reduced air resistance, new Michelin tires that lower rolling resistance, and the new European cyclGearbox with altered ratios for third, fourth and fifth gears.  Volvo says the new gearbox configuration alone results in a 1.5% reduction in fuel consumption without affecting the driveability of the car. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in July, Ford released the details of a new Fiesta it plans to begin selling this November. The new car is based on Ford’s ECOnetic platform and can get 63 mpg in the city and 73 mpg on the highway. So why is it only available in Europe? It’s a diesel, and Ford doesn’t think Americans will ever adopt diesel cars.

According to Businessweek, Ford lists a littany of excuses why they could never market this car in the US. Chief among these excuses is that they don’t think they could ever sell enough of them to make a profit. Ford says that in order to produce them for the US market they’d have to build a new plant and then make at least 350,000 of them a year.

If there’s no way to make a profit on these cars and Americans won’t buy them, why are so many European and Asian car makers bringing these new “clean diesels” to the U.S. starting next year? When I see news that Mercedes, Nissan, Volkswagen and even Honda are all building clean diesel cars with excellent fuel economy for the US market, Ford’s excuses start to seem pretty hollow.

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After the last diesel car was taken off the Japanese market in 2007, Nissan Motor Company has become the first domestic automaker to release a diesel car in Japan in six years. And in the current day climate of everyone looking for ways to save on fuel – to cut costs and to help the environment – Nissan’s X-Trail 20GT sport utility vehicle is also the world’s first “clean” diesel.

Being powered by an engine lead-developed by partner Renault SA, the “clean” diesel refers to the fact that the X-Trail meets Japan’s new emissions standards that are set to kick into effect October 2009. These standards are said to be the strictest in the world.

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Ok, so it isn’t flashy, just nice clean lines and a monster under the hood.  It’s the new Trident Iceni, a two-seat sports car boasting a 6.61 litre V8 turbo diesel from GM that will launch you from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds.  The company, Trident Performance Vehicles based in the UK, says computer calculations suggest a top speed of 230 mph, and a range of approximately 1000 miles.

The car’s chassis is stainless steel throughout, forming what the company says is a complete safety cell around the occupants against front and side impact.  Rollover protection is supplied by a central spine configuration that is said to have the highest torsional rigidity of any car tested.  Trident guarantees the car for life against corrosion. Read the rest of this entry »

Japan will look to introduce incentives for the fiscal year starting July 2009, for consumers looking to buy clean diesel cars, in an attempt to reduce the countries carbon dioxide emissions. Such an incentive will hopefully not only push consumers into buying cleaner cars, but hopefully push manufacturers into building them as well.

According to an official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), further details will be clarified and confirmed over the rest of 2008, for a hopeful introduction in April of 09.

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It looks like the new line of clean diesels from VW, including the new Jetta TDI and SportWagen, will be eligible for a $1,300 Federal Income Tax Credit.

VW made the announcement earlier in the week after receiving notification from the IRS that clean diesels would meet the “Advanced Lean Burn” motor vehicle income tax credit. Read the rest of this entry »

Enova Systems and IC Corporation have delivered a plug-in hybrid diesel electric bus to Denali National Park for use in carting visitors around the pristine wilderness.

The bus (similar to the one pictured above) has a GVWR of 27,500 pounds, carries up to 38 passengers and uses up to 70% less fuel than a similarly equipped conventional bus — so if the bus got 10 mpg with a conventional engine, it could get 30 mpg using Enova’s hybrid system.

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Lack of warranty support for biodiesel has been a major stumbling block for new diesel owners who want to start using the fuel. But three long-awaited ASTM specifications could help change that.

Automakers and engine manufacturers have been requesting a finished blend specification for B20 biodiesel blends for several years, with some citing the need for that spec as the single greatest hurdle preventing their full-scale acceptance of B20 use in their diesel vehicles.

On June 19th, after more than five years of research and discussion, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) finally approved the following specifications for biodiesel fuel:

• Changes to the existing B100 biodiesel blend stock specification (ASTM D6751)
• Finished specifications to include up to 5% biodiesel (B5) in the conventional petrodiesel specification (ASTM D975)
• A new specification for blends of between 6 percent biodiesel (B6) to 20 percent biodiesel (B20) for on and off road diesel.

If that’s gibberish to you, here’s the take home message: the new specification for B6-B20 biodiesel blends could prompt more automakers to fully support B20 in their new cars and trucks. Read the rest of this entry »

2009 Jetta TDI Clean Diesel Sedan

VW announced the pricing of the 2009 Jetta and SportWagen yesterday, along with a new fuel economy certification from the third-party certifier AMCI. It seems that VW wasn’t particularly impressed with the EPA’s 29 mpg city / 40 mpg hwy estimation, and wanted a second opinion.

There has been some general confusion circulating about fuel economy estimates for the new Jetta (which will be available in August) ever since VW’s Director of Powertrain Development announced the car could get up to 60 mpg. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiguan HyMotion Fuel Cell Concept Car

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend a VW press event showing off the new hydrogen fuel cell powered Tiguan. The vehicle (above) is one of only two concept prototypes in the world, and this one was flown in from Germany for its US debut.

The event was originally intended to be a test-drive of the HyMotion Tiguan, but the vehicle was having “electrical problems” that kept it out for display only. A VW spokesperson assured us that it had nothing to do with the fuel cell, but whatever the problem was they didn’t want it to happen to us in mid-day San Francisco traffic. Read the rest of this entry »

New diesels will get better mileage and have cleaner emissions than your average car. Pictured above: 2009 Jetta SportWagen 2L TDI Clean Diesel.

Later this year (see the timeline below), we will finally begin to see an influx of new model diesels in the United States. While diesels make up 50% of the market share of vehicles in Europe, they’re still trying to shrug off the stigma of being dirty, noisy beasts here in the US. So what changed? Read the rest of this entry »

Diesel Hybrid Electric Golf Doesn’t Make it out of the Showroom

It looks like VW won’t be sending a diesel hybrid to the US after all. VW announced the 70 MPG diesel-hybrid electric Golf at the Geneva Motor Show, but turned around in the March 27 edition of Auto, Motor und Sport to say they wouldn’t be building the car because it would be “too expensive.” Read the rest of this entry »

VW’s Jetta BlueTDI: 60 MPG, 90% Emissions Reduction for NOx

VW’s ultra-low emission 2009 Jetta will be coming to the US mid-summer, according to an announcement made late last month at the Vienna Motor Symposium.

This newer version of the Jetta will meet the strictest emissions standards in the world—BIN5/LEV2—which are enforced by 5 US states: California, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Vermont. BIN5/LEV2 standards severely cap nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions (0.05 g/mile), one of the two tailpipe pollutants that have given diesels a bad rap (that and particulate matter). Read the rest of this entry »

It looks like Solazyme will be making algal biodiesel for the US military, after a test-drive demonstrated the fuel’s superior cold-weather properties when compared to commercially-available biodiesel.

Former Director of Central Intelligence and Under-Secretary of the Navy R. James Woolsey tested the fuel himself by driving to the Worldwide Energy Conference & Trade Show in an unmodified 2008 Ford F450 fueled by 100% algal biodiesel. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve posted in the past about a possible hybrid LeMans car and performance diesels, but today there is some actual news on some non-gasoline race cars from Audi. As reported by AutoBlogGreen, Audi recently took second place in their first showing with the diesel-powered cars in the European LeMans (this is after having raced these cars since 2006 outside of Europe).

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