diesel pollution

[Profpointy]

A lorry weighing 40 tonnes will do about 7mpg.. A diesel car weighing 1 tonne will do about 50mpg.. Who are the real polluters then?

The lorry will be carrying maybe 30t of stuff, whilst the car will be carrying typically one 80kg bloke. So what's the pollution per tonne transported?

edit - brian above beat me to it

 

[albion]

over 50% of all cars registered in Britain are now diesel, up from 23% in 2002. One reason is that cities and government have offered tax incentives for diesels.
A 2011 test by government to measure emissions from vehicles in everyday use concluded that, while petrol emissions had improved by 96%, "emissions of NOx [nitrogen oxide] from diesel cars and light goods vehicles have not decreased for the past 15-20 years.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/mar/19/uk-air-pollution-health-crisis

The lobbyists are always in control.

 

[Drago]

What about the other pollution related figure for lorries? The energy expended and pollution created in their manufacturer and disposal? Their average lifespan? The damage they do to the roads that requires energy intensive and environmentally tragic repairs? What about young Eds smoke old Land Rover, which might last 40 or 50 years? The relatively low emissions Prius, which by the time it has been manufactured in Japan and shipped to a showroom floor in London has already accounted for more emissions than a home grown SUV from manufacture, through 100,000 miles of motoring, and disposal? The problem is far to complex and subtle to hold up an isolated example of one vehicles MPG and make narrow comparisons.

 

[BrianEvesham]

No, but it's a start.

 

[GrasB]

From my observation larger capacity N/A petrol engines do best around town unless you have the lightest of right foots. The problem with small petrol engines is that most are now using quite high pressure turbos which drink fuel at relatively low throttle inputs. Superchargers are better as they don't need nearly as much fuel to calm down knock bit then they get hit more by the standard test cycles. Manufactures play about with the throttle mappings to give non-liner responses but simply drivers go for the same acceleration rather than the same throttle input as a % of the throttle motion. Performance cars can't have as radical a throttle ramp as a lower powered car because you end up with a throttle switch rather than something variable, this in turn pulls the emissions levels closer to reality.

This is why I can get 29-31mpg from a supercharged 7l V8 around town, about the same as a 2.0 turbo engine & not much worse than a 1.2l TSI Polo.

 

[Drago]

No, but it's a start.

it's a distraction. Unless you include every factor into the comparison it like comparing the sun to the moon, or curing a patient's cancer while ignoring their Ebola.

 

[albion]

... The problem is far to complex and subtle...

No.

it is not. Politicans take account of lobbyists when making decisions. And whenever I hear of 2020 etc the intent is often 'nothing is going to change on my watch'.

So why not tax London diesel an extra £10 a day next year? Ken Livingstone would do it I imagine.

 

[Drago]

I was speaking more of the technical and scientific problem.

The human problem is indeed very simple.

 

[BrianEvesham]

it's a distraction. Unless you include every factor into the comparison it like comparing the sun to the moon, or curing a patient's cancer while ignoring their Ebola.

I disagree but I'm not going to argue with you. Just giving my opinion

 

[DWiggy]

Diesels are fine as long as they are serviced regularly it would seem a lot dont get serviced as often as they should,from experience nearly all diesels car/vans new/old that put their foot down when going up a hill leave a trail of black soot that lingers....

 

[young Ed]

Diesels are fine as long as they are serviced regularly it would seem a lot dont get serviced as often as they should,from experience nearly all diesels car/vans new/old that put their foot down when going up a hill leave a trail of black soot that lingers....

not seen a mercedes sprinter of the new type (only made in diesel) smoke black
they use special technology to ensure as clean and complete a burn as possible and have a dpf and everything else like that
one thing they don't like and can cause black smoke and the DPF to pack up is running at a normal idle, fopr this reason if i were to ever have a diesel with a DPF i would either adjust the idle in the proper way or fit a little bracket and a adjuster/stop screw just above the accelerator so that it idled at a higher than normal RPM as this is better for the DPF, gives a better burn, and reduces black smoke
Cheers Ed

 

[Drago]

Don't Mercs now use a urea based DPF system, can regen whenever required and not just at high engine temps?

 

[Drago]

And they wonder why so may people are sticking to diesel?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...ric-car-infrastructure-falling-into-ruin.html

 

[GrasB]

[QUOTE 3344879, member: 45"]Our 1.2tsi does 40+ around town.[/QUOTE]
But that'll be heavily driver dependent. I was comparing the same driver (my wife) in the same conditions. She was getting mid-30s out of the 1.2 TSI polo we hired/leased. Also I noticed that the trip computer was reading about 4mpg high on that car, about the same over-estimation the lease cars we had.

 

[GrasB]

Don't Mercs now use a urea based DPF system, can regen whenever required and not just at high engine temps?

Along with almost every EU6 diesel getting type approval.