Diesel Fuel & Diesel Engines

Diesel
At present, diesels offer 20-25-percent-better fuel efficiency than gasoline engines. But with lots of cheap gas available and the diesel's reputation for noisy, smoke-spewing bog-slow performance, nobody seemed to care. Currently, Volkswagen is the only maker offering diesel cars in the American market. Interestingly enough, sales volumes on these vehicles, long-recognized for their efficiency, has been climbing. Several domestic makers offers diesels, but only in heavy-duty full-size pickups.

So, why aren't more makers building them? Most say they're afraid of new air-pollution regs that'll make light-duty diesels impossible to certify in the U.S. in just a few years. None, with the possible recent exception of Ford Motor Company, wants to make huge investments in diesel engine-production plants that won't be producing long enough to make a profit. And again, aren't diesels smelly, slow, and hard to start in cold weather?

If that's your perception, you have an older notion of diesel technology. Rapid advancements in fuel-injection technology and combustion-chamber design have virtually eliminated those problems. And turbocharging has added new zest to diesel driving performance. In Europe, the diesel is enjoying an up-to-70-percent slice of the new-car market in countries with scary-high fuel costs.

There's reason to be hopeful for diesels. First, some makers believe they can get some needed relief from the toughest clean-air regulations. This would allow manufacturers dependent on light trucks and sport/utility vehicles to slip powerful, new-generation diesels into these rigs to keep profits and truck Corporate Average Fuel Economy up. At present, the EPA is setting up a panel to review its plan for sharply lower sulfur content in diesel fuel by 2006. The cleaner fuel would pave the way for more sophisticated emissions systems for this new breed of compression-ignition engines.