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TBH My daily commute is a round trip of ~32 miles (either on my bike or in my car) plus maybe an extra 5-10 miles to do errands a couple of evenings, a week... so Monday - Friday a car with maybe 50-60 miles range between refuelling/charging would do for someone like me... I'd quite like to drive a little leccy car to work (of course that leccy juice has to be generated somehow doesn't it)...
It's weekends that will mostly impact things, I drove a good 200 odd miles this weekend for general family stuff, not all that unusual...
Which gets you to the "two car" conclusion, small, efficient weekday commuter, plus weekend family wagon might well work for the 2.4 kids nuclear family units... Although we've concluded we need to go down to one car at present rather than continue to run two shit-boxes...
Of course that wouldn't suit everyone, but I can actually see the benefits for quite a few people, we've perhaps become too used to cars which cover "All bases" when maybe 80% of car use is actually quite limited in terms of distance...
Also many of us seem to automatically assume we have to own the car we're driving, but why?
I'd happily dispense with all the VED/Insurance/servicing costs of an over-specified vehicle when I could occasionally rent something to cover that extra ~20% of my transport needs...
So long as there's a financial benefit to doing that, rather than owning a "Motorway capable" car that spends most of it's time bumbling round town, or averaging 46 mph on 'A' roads, why wouldn't you?
[i]The whole thing has been a waste of resources that might otherwise have been deployed to better means.[/i]
No different to when lean-burn engines were superseded by catalysts; loads of quality engines junked and replaced by old engines with cats and less power (and economy).
Toyotas working on an integrated linear electricity generator...
Which gets you to the "two car" conclusion
Or the Ampera.
Or readily available instant car hire. BMW have a 'car club' offering with their i3 afaik.
PS good to see Toyota innovating.. I like that.
Not sure why it's not double ended though - two combustion chambers
It's interesting that not one person has mention VOC (volatile organinc compounds) yet, purported to be 10x more harmful to the environment than Co2 and NOx, though it's not a direct polluted to health.
Technologies are ever moving with emissions, but the change in the NEDC drive cycle is aiming to capture true/representative figures for emissions as "static" testing is fudged at the best of times.
Jambalaya is right to a point that the auto industry wont allow their market to evaporate, they lobby far to heavily for that, however they do also realise that peer pressure will force people in to greener forms of transport, therefore they will continue to "outdo" each other in these stakes, which is is indirectly because of EU green lobbying.
For now, and for the foreseable future, hydrcoarbon transport will stay and diesels will continue to play a big part in that, hybrids or one or more description will be the norm very shortly.
Not sure why it's not double ended though - two combustion chambers
One end is a gas spring - like the fork in your push bike.
Very clever, eliminates the need for a crankshaft.
, in fact most people in France (60% ?) drive diesels.
In France its actually about 80%, the EU as a whole is 55%, the UK is just over 50%
So most people in the EU drive diesels.
Of all the European mass manufacturers, probably BMW is still in the best position, with regard to petrol engines. VW are not the only ones vulnerable - JLR could be caught very flat-footed by this
BMW do have a very good range of new petrol engines, but there is not a lot wrong with the EA888 4cylinder turbo lump in almost every new petrol VAG they were slightly behind the curve but the new petrol engines are pretty good.
Ford also have an excellent range of petrol "Ecoboost" engines - partly driven by some many sales in the US market.
Similarly Japanese manufacturers have been producing good petrol engines for years due to their domestic market.
The majority of people couldn't give a flying fart what type of engine they have. They'll buy whatever is marketed to them. If legislation forces the big manufacturers to start restricting their diesel offerings then petrol will quickly overtake diesel again. And very few people will actually care!
In fact, given the level of scaremongering by the Media based on today's pollution levels, it's amazing anyone survived the 1960's levels..........
well, a lot of people didn't!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog
imagine the headlines now if we had pollution that killed 12,000 people in 4 days.... terrifying 😯
When most people bought Diesel's, they weren't thinking about the environment, they were thinking about their pockets and big MPG. If the pursuit of diesel by the manufacturers was purely environmental, why the proliferation of yet bigger engines in family cars. To me the idea of a 3 litre diesel engine, which 20 years ago would have been typical in a small truck / tractor, is now relatively common on an estate car.
As Petrol has a higher calorific value than diesel, is it fair to say that petrol engines are far from optimised, surely they should be pushing out higher MPG than diesel?
pie face, other way round mate!As Petrol has a higher calorific value than diesel, is it fair to say that petrol engines are far from optimised, surely they should be pushing out higher MPG than diesel?
[maxtorque - Member ]before you go casting dispersion like that, you may want to check your facts!
bit touchy! (what my comment meant to highlight was that testing when you have a prepared vehicle in does not represent reality for most people)
the thrust of my post was that all the guff posted by manufatureres and lobby Groups about CO2 V Nox blah blah blah are meaningless...Unless the cradle to grave impact of both the manufacture of the vehicle and its emmissions and fuel supply chain are considered then arguing over test standards etc is pointless
saying fuel type X in vehicle y produces 10% less of pollution W is a complete waste of time without considering the vehicle and supplychains
@Sui, just looked it up.
http://www.acea.be/news/article/differences-between-diesel-and-petrol
The calorific value of petrol is a tiny bit higher, but diesel is denser holding about 15% more per given volume. Therefore any petrol engine that is more than 20% less efficient than an equivalent diesel is less than optimal it seems.
Yes, given for the same density Petrol is. For comparison sake a reference Gasoline (used for emissions testing) typically has 46.20 MJ/Kg , whereas diesel has 45.68 MJ/kg. Density of Petrol is approx 0.745 kg/l, diesel is 0.834 kg/l.
MJ = millijoules
edit - just looked at that ACEA report, the diesel cal vals are off slightly.. My figures are actual.
cheeky second edit.
Megajoules, a joule isn't very big.
😳 yes.. trying to concentrate on too many things- blast work!
saying fuel type X in vehicle y produces 10% less of pollution W is a complete waste of time without considering the vehicle and supplychains
The supply chain is mostly outside the control of the UK and the EU.
They can only control what is sold/bought/used within the UK/EU.
We have to work with the economic tools we've got rather than wait for the entire world to agree to limit use of fossil fuels and pollution.
Hmm. Could you fit a bigger engine/generator to the Ampera and overcharge it? I want to put a smallblock in one.
No... You can turbocharge a Prius tho....
Put a supercharged LS7 in it. You could then charge up all the Amperas in a 5 block radius.Hmm. Could you fit a bigger engine/generator to the Ampera and overcharge it? I want to put a smallblock in one.
[HoratioHufnagel - Member
saying fuel type X in vehicle y produces 10% less of pollution W is a complete waste of time without considering the vehicle and supplychains
The supply chain is mostly outside the control of the UK and the EU.
They can only control what is sold/bought/used within the UK/EU.
We have to work with the economic tools we've got rather than wait for the entire world to agree to limit use of fossil fuels and pollution.]
I didn't say the UK......if you buy anything you have some degree of Control + a significant proportion of the supply chain is within the EU anyway...... just looking at what comes out of the exhaust pipe is nonsensical
torsoinalake - MemberPut a supercharged LS7 in it. You could then charge up all the Amperas in a 5 block radius.
Stick a big cummins in it and drive around redneckville, wait for someone to "roll coal" at you then gas them right back
It's interesting that not one person has mention VOC (volatile organinc compounds) yet, purported to be 10x more harmful to the environment than Co2 and NOx, though it's not a direct polluted to health
The ammount of unburnt hydrocarbons in the exhaust of a car is miniscule, it's not been an issue since cat's have been fitted.
Yes, given for the same density Petrol is. For comparison sake a reference Gasoline (used for emissions testing) typically has 46.20 MJ/Kg , whereas diesel has 45.68 MJ/kg. Density of Petrol is approx 0.745 kg/l, diesel is 0.834 kg/l
Those look like higher heating values? The lower heating value for petrol or diesel is 41.5 or 42.5 respetively, petrol is proportionaly worse than diesel as it's a higher ratio of hydrogen to carbon, therefore produces more water and less CO2 when burnt. The difference is important because a car's engine does not recover the waste heat from the exhaust or condense the water vapour in it.