June 9, 2008
TOKYO — Nissan said Monday that it plans to launch a "clean diesel" SUV in Japan this fall and plans to introduce a clean-diesel version of its popular Nissan Maxima passenger car in the USA in 2010, according to USA Today.
The automaker said it will send a prototype of its X-TRAIL SUV to next month's Group of Eight leaders' summit in Toyako, in northern Japan, where climate change tops the agenda.Delegates will be able to test drive the diesel sport-utility vehicle, which is based on technology developed with French partner Renault.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 10:27 AM | Permalink
May 19, 2008
Volkswagen says it will be the first to market with diesels clean enough to pass muster in every state. Jetta TDI sedans and wagons are due to arrive in August.
AFTER years in the automotive wilderness, largely exiled to the smoky borders of truck stops, diesel is coming home. Americans may not recognize its freshly scrubbed face, according to The New York Times.
A 19th-century invention by Rudolf Diesel, the diesel engine has always been known for outstanding fuel efficiency, with better mileage (by 25 percent to 40 percent) than gasoline. But the kerosenelike fuel and the engines that burn it were dirty, noisy, dawdling and even deadly, linked to increased risk of cancer and respiratory disease.
That has all changed, in part because of cleaner-burning fuel — its 2006 rollout had been mandated in 2000 by the Clinton administration — that has 97 percent less of the sulfur responsible for diesel engines’ sooty particulates.
The low-sulfur fuel, hailed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a historic advance, has opened the door to sophisticated emissions controls that let diesel engines meet the strict pollution standards of California. Those rules, the world’s most stringent by far, require 2009-model diesels to be as green as gasoline or even hybrid models.
In the meantime, advances like turbocharging and high-pressure fuel injection have transformed diesel cars from soot-belching slowpokes with a telltale clickety-clack sound to smooth, tidy and powerful machines that many Americans would have a hard time distinguishing from gasoline models.
With technical and environmental hurdles overcome — and facing tougher mileage standards that call for a 35 m.p.g. average by 2020 — automakers are rushing in with clean-diesel cars.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:26 AM | Permalink
January 21, 2008
DETROIT — Diesel fuel costs an average 38 cents a gallon more than gasoline, isn't available at every filling station, and in the past, has been associated with engines that clatter and smoke, according to USA Today.
But none of those negatives dissuaded automakers from rolling out a raft of new diesel car, truck and SUV models at the North American International Auto Show here last week.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:35 AM | Permalink
