Beginning Of The End For Filthy Diesel Cars?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38170794

[Tilly2]

Every little helps.

[Ninefingers]

Still think this is hogwash - diesel cars are far more efficient than petrol cars.

[ToraToraTora]

evidence ninefingers?

[youngmafbog]

//stop the use of all diesel-powered cars and trucks //

So what can be used for trucks then. As far as I am aware there is no viable alternative. Cars yes, trucks no and they have to be the biggest problem. Are Councils going to dump all their Transits and refuse collection trucks with horse drawn or something?

And since it is only into a couple of cities in the World I doubt it will be the end for some time.

Don't get me wrong being asthmatic I would love to see pollution cleared up, but there has to be a viable alternative for it to work. And at present there isn't. Even electric cars are not that environmentally friendly if you include manufacture, the short battery life and making the leccy.

[youngmafbog]

This isn't about efficiency it is about pollution, especially particle pollution.

[ToraToraTora]

yes trucks are designed to be diesel, as are canal boats and tractors, not cars, it's a recent fad. If enough cities start banning them then the manufacturers will stop making them.

[youngmafbog]

They can only stop making them if there is an alternative. Using petrol would be too expensive and electric is not there yet.

[ToraToraTora]

we can just revert to petrol like we always have. So it's a bit dearer, maybe it will force poor people off the roads and cut congestion!

[alavahalf]

Canal boats were designed to be pulled by horses, but that didn't stop them from deciding if something is less efficient than it could be, then it's time to improve it.. and fit a diesel engine into it ?
At this stage we dont seem to have anything better.

[mikey4444]

There must be 100's of millions of diesel cars in those 4 cities....just how are they going to disappear ?

[ToraToraTora]

the city can ban them by using the same tech as for congestion charging. Eg read plate, is car diesel? if So massive fine 1st offence, crusher second offence, simples!

[youngmafbog]

Well that is a good point TTT. Banning Diesel and raising the price of a litre of petrol to £3.00 should get the scum off the road and make it clearer for the rest of us.

[youngmafbog]

Yes, it wont be difficult to stop them. Tech is in place already as TTT points out.

Just needs the will to carry it out.

[Ninefingers]

Evidence - Diesels run at around 70% fuel efficiency, petrol engines, even the very best of them at 40 - 45% efficiency.

If car companies would work on the technology to further reduce particulate emmissions rather than cheap fixes and in volkswagen's cases simply lying about it then this would be significantly less of a problem.

[dave50]

Another spurious environmental excuse to increase fuel tax.

[DTCwordfan]

also TTT it is a question of refining - diesel can be made incredibly clean in terms of NOx, SOx and particulates - and then there is the catalyst trap to ensure that pollution is minimised. Diesel made from Natural Gas is very clean indeed - and 9fingers is correct about the fuel efficiency.

[DTCwordfan]

the ones who really need to clean up their diesel are the Americans - their fuel has a far, far lower centistoke and frequently burns with black exhaust, indicative that the particulates are far higher - our diesel is double the centistoke of the typical American fuel.

[Old_Geezer]

Typical elite government solution. Kick the citizen for doing nothing wrong rather than allow whatever the issue is to die out over time. Those desiring power shown once more to be eminently unsuitable for electing into office.

Diesel cars ARE designed to run on diesel.

[whiskeryron]

What a pity we didn't move on with the much cleaner & more efficient Steam engine as we did with the internal combustion Engine. http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/design-engineering-features/technology/steaming-ahead/11693/. There's hope for us all yet it would seem.

[jomifl]

Diesel engines could be made a lot cleaner if the car manufactures sacrificed a little of their profits.