The Axis of Diesel
Mercedes, GM and even Honda, are betting on a new breed of green
diesels. The goal? To leave hybrids in the dust.
By Lawrence Ulrich, Fortune
October 10 2006: 2:29 PM EDT
(Fortune magazine) -- As night fell over the 24 Hours of LeMans this
summer, spectators at France's prestigious endurance race detected a
pattern. While competitors entered the pits to refuel, a sleek pair of
Audi R10s kept stealing laps around the 13.7-kilometer track. Already
the fastest cars on the course, and eerily quiet thanks to a unique
emissions filter, the Audis were also proving the most fuel-efficient.
When the checkered flag flew, the Audi had made history as the first
diesel car to win a major international race.
Diesel isn't just changing LeMans. Thanks to technological
breakthroughs, at least six automakers - starting with Mercedes on Oct.
16, Jeep in early 2007, and eventually even hybrid pioneer Honda - will
be launching a fleet of New Age diesels. They promise to boost fuel
economy by 25% to 40%, with huge torque and turbochargers to deliver
the power American drivers crave.
Clean Machine: This Audi R10 was the first diesel to win a major
international race, at LeMans in June.
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Though initial models won't pass air-quality standards in five states
(California and New York among them), Mercedes has announced three 2008
SUVs that will achieve 50-state standards. Honda (Charts), VW, and GM
(Charts) are close behind. How big is the market? J.D. Power estimates
that diesel sales will triple to 9% of the U.S. market by 2013,
compared with a projected hybrid share of 5%.
While a diesel may have won LeMans, winning over American consumers
won't be easy. "[Toyota's] success has been to put the idea in
consumers' minds that hybrids are the only solution, but that's wrong,"
says clean-diesel proponent Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault (Charts)
and Nissan (Charts). Though half the new cars in Europe have diesel
engines (credit $6-a-gallon gas and tax subsidies), most Americans
still associate the word with soot-spewing, bone-rattling specimens
from the '70s. "People ask why we don't just bring them over, but it's
a challenge," says Frank Klegon, chief of Chrysler Group's global
product development. While hybrids are seen as cutting-edge, "with
diesels, it's 'Well, those have been around for 100 years.' "
More than 100, actually. Bavarian Rudolf Diesel patented his
groundbreaking engine in 1892. While a gasoline engine squeezes gas and
air together, a diesel compresses only air, at high pressures, creating
so much heat that added fuel ignites without a spark. (Diesel contains
more energy than gasoline, and engines burn it more efficiently.)
Shifting America's gears
Though diesels produce fewer greenhouse gases, they make more
smog-forming pollutants. Mercedes debuted the first mass-produced car
model in 1936, and popularity peaked here during the early '80s, when
four of five Benzes sold featured a so-called oil burner. But the era
of cheap gas left most buyers oblivious to fuel economy. As emissions
standards got stricter, the EPA even discussed banning diesel a decade
ago, notes Margo Oge, director of the EPA's office for transportation
and air quality. Except for pickups and a fringe of Volkswagen
fanatics, the technology largely fell by the wayside.
Until now. The first breakthrough is that ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel
will roll out to the nation's pumps this month. The move was mandated
by the EPA, whose 2009 emissions rules will hold diesels to the same
standards - the world's toughest - as gasoline cars. (Environmentalists
were thrilled, oil companies less so: The rollout will cost them $6
billion to $9 billion.) The new fuel eliminates 97% of sulfur, and it's
also the catalyst for automakers to devise strategies to reduce the
remaining pollutants.
Mercedes is furthest along. In the E 320 Blutec, a trap stores and
purges smog-forming nitrogen oxides. A second filter captures
particulate matter - diesel's black calling card, long linked to
cancer, asthma, and other health risks. Then ammonia compounds are used
to convert nitrogen oxides to water and nitrogen. What will consumers
notice? It goes fast, it delivers a knockout 38 highway miles per
gallon, there's no smell, and it costs just $1,000 more than the gas
model, vs. Lexus's $8,000 premium for its GS hybrid sedan.
To pass the strictest air-quality rules, part two of Mercedes' plan
involves adding a small tank of urea, an ammonia-like fluid that
further neutralizes pollution. The EPA's Oge says that while the agency
has been leery of emissions systems that require maintenance, it will
back Mercedes' approach.
By the time Mercedes' 50-state diesels launch, the competition will be
heated. In September, Honda - a company long associated with hybrids -
announced a catalytic-converter breakthrough that requires no fluid
additives, saying it will deliver 50-state models by 2009. And GM
recently showed off a burly, ultra-clean V-8 diesel that should arrive
around the same time. VW, Audi, Nissan, BMW, and Chrysler Group also
have versions in the works.
The question is, Are Americans ready for diesel's second coming? "We've
always been a proponent," says Mercedes' E-Class chief, Bart Herring.
"But changing the perspective of the rest of the market will take time
and effort." Honda's research showed that older Americans are more
skeptical of diesel. "Younger people are more open to it," says John
Watts, Honda's manager for product planning. "They're more our target
of who diesel would appeal to - cars with lots of power yet low fuel
consumption."
In other words, for eco-conscious buyers, the race is on.
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http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/04/autos/fortune_diesels.fortune/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
On alt.energy.homepower, in
wrote:
> The Axis of Diesel Mercedes, GM and even Honda, are betting on
> a new breed of green diesels.
There will be an Earth-friendly car when hell freezes over.
It's so _easy_ to say the word "green", and quite another to _be_
green.
The psuedo-progressives, who want to pretend that they can have
their Earth and eat it too, want us to focus on the exhaust of
the car.
Not the exhaust of the smelters and refineries and power plants
and heavy equipment and factories necessary to make those cars.
Not on the mining and manufacture of _those_ things.
Not on the destructiveness of roads and the manufacturing of all
the equipment to build them and to mine and refine the materials
for them.
Not on the incredible amount of energy it takes to make a car and
it's share of the road and fuel infrastructure.
It's just more NIMBY: Cars are 'green' if they don't pollute
_their_ immediate environment, but what they do to someone
_else's_ environment is someone else's problem.
Alan
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> a new breed of green diesels.