A diesel Honda that gets 62.8 miles a gallon?
Feast your eyes on this, car technology and high-mileage nuts. It's a Honda Accord that runs on diesel.
Honda expects to bring the clean-diesel car to the U.S. by 2010. It gets 62.8 miles a gallon on the highway, but otherwise looks and feels like a regular Accord. At that mileage level, the car is about as "clean" as a new Toyota Prius. But if you run it on biodiesel, a form of diesel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, it would be even cleaner than a Prius (Priuses get 60 in the city).
The advantage of diesel cars, however, is that they pack a lot of power.
(Credit: Courtesy Diesel Technology Forum)The car was shown off with a number of other cars in Sacramento, Calif., earlier this month as a way to promote clean diesel cars and technology. In the '90s, California passed strict emission controls that restricted the amount of sulfur a car could emit. As a result, diesel manufacturers curbed sales to California and the U.S. in general.
Since then, petroleum manufacturers have devised cleaner diesels that only emit about 15 parts per million of diesel, down from hundreds of parts per million. That satisfies the California law. Manufacturers, meanwhile, have come out with more efficient and powerful diesel engines that get 20 to 40 percent better mileage than their older cars.
"A lot of changes have taken place in the engine, all thanks to electronics," said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, which helped organize the Clean Diesel Technology Tour. (Cars from Audi and a tractor trailer rig from Caterpillar were also shown). "Half the cars in Europe are diesel."
Thus, diesels, usually thought of as smelly, are now environmentally somewhat sound.
now gets 28 MPG on the interstate. At 2 1/2 times the MPG it
would not seem that bad.
Environmental Education not force. It stiffs the oil cobal too.
Regardless, I am excited that Honda is working on this clean, torque laden (something honda engines lack) diesel engine for the US. I believe diesel engines will make hybrids obsolete.
The body has nothing to do with power
*Woopie-doo! You one up'ed people!*
Why is Honda get so much credit for minor improvements?
I drive a 2006 Jetta TDI. I avg. 43 mpg, driving conservatively, and using B20 (20% biodiesel blended with 80% ULSD fuel). When one combines diesels with the use of biodiesel (which all diesels can use w/o modification), the potential for saving petroleum through the use of diesel automobiles, is tremendous.
The 2006 VW Jetta TDI gets an estimated, 36 city and 41 hwy for the 5-speed manual, while the automatic lists at 35/42. The average user, however, reports an average of 44 mpg with the 2006 Jetta TDI. Likewise, most other diesel models outperform the epa estimate in fuel economy.
The upcoming VW Jetta TDI/BlueTec is expected to get 45 mpg in a combined, city/hwy rating, which (if this is held up by the EPA) will be an increase of seven mpg over the 2006 model, while providing 40 more horsepower @ 140, and 59 more lbs of torque @ 236.
Consumers can expect to see this fifty-state complliant Jetta way before the Accord; the Jetta--around mid-Spring of 2008; the Accord--by 2010.
What if we changed that to two vehicles that got not so good fuel economy, and we compared a pickup that gets 10 mpg to a pickup that gets 20 mpg.
Would that be a whoopdy do? It's the same increase; ten mpg!
Whoa!!! This is so wrong I can't believe they printed it!
Petroleum manufacturers didn't do anything. The car manufacturers designed exhaust treatment systems and engines that can cut particulates of matter 90%, and nitrogen oxides 90% from levels found in the cleanest, 2004 diesel cars. As a prerequisite, however, the engine manufacturers needed the EPA to mandate 15 ppm diesel fuel which had been the standard throughout most of the world for almost ten years. This lower sulfur fuel allows automakers to apply these advanced systems. The 500 ppm, sulfur diesel would destroy these exhaust treatment systems and was keeping the auto industry from offering the U.S. diesel cars.
The petroleum industry fought this for years, even as they knew it was the right thing to do for the environment. Now, companies like Shell are airing commercials giving themselves credit for bringing cleaner fuels to America, when in fact, they held out until they were forced to market the clean fuel here.
15 ppm sulfur is not a measure of output as this article states. It is the level of sulfur in the fuel and does not have anything to do with the level of sulfur allowed out the tailpipe of diesel cars and trucks.
PM-.002 grams per mile. NOx - .07 grams per mile, fleet avg. Those are the requirements that the automanufacturers have to reach that will allow fifty-state emission compliance through 2010. These numbers are more commonly referred to as tier 2, bin 5, and will be the same in all fifty states by 2009.
Now 52.3 MPG is based on Imperial gallons which is 1.2 US Gallons. Now to convert that number to US gallons, you should do 52.3/1.2 = 43.6. Now if you do the opposite and do 52.3 * 1.2, you get 62.76 which rounds to 62.8 MPG.
Coincidence that this new car gets exactly 62.8 MPG, a 44% increase in mileage, when announced in the US market? I think not!
http://www.carpages.co.uk/honda/honda-accord-review-part-1-16-04-05.asp
Economy [ Manufacturers Figures ]
Urban 39.8 mpg
Extra Urban 62.8 mpg
Combined 52.3 mpg
Bring on the diesel cars. Sign me up--I'll take one. And while you're at it, bring the MINI Cooper D (diesel) to the USA! 64.2mpg!
Magnum 44
More background: http://www.autozine.org/html/Honda/Accord.html
U.S. vehicles rank bottom in world fuel efficiency...
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN3024959820070730
Think about it:
You plugin your car in at night so you use less fuel and need to travel to the gas station less, so getting the diesel isn't as much as a drag (considering stations aren't as popular as petro or gasoline).
What would the fuel economy be with a 60 mile trip like that..
40 miles on electricity
20 miles on diesel
Amazing it would be I tell you!
pretty good mileage - 42-45mpg. It was frustrating to know that
there were clean diesels in Europe, but not in the US. I couldn't
even purchase one in Europe, and bring it over here.
It's about time.
The have lots of torque (long stroke and high compression), but (horse) power depends on the rate the energy is produced and in that category gasoline engines win hands down. What diesel produces nearly two horsepower per cubic inch which is now frequently seen in higher efficiency gas engines? And turbo-charging or supercharging gets you even more horsepower. A twin-turbo diesel might make the bottomor middle of the pack, but there's only one I know of and it's designed more like a gas engine.
Maybe you should expound on that.
- Will it make it?
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by Wood Heat
January 12, 2008 3:59 PM PST
- I sure hope so, but my thought is that if we can produce cars getting 20 mpg that means it will use three gallons of gas to go as far as one gallon in this diesel honda. That means less fuel tax - less money for the 'roads' Seems there is some government agency that does not want this.
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Reply to this comment
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See all 52 Comments >>I have a friend in R&D at Honda and he says Honda has the ability to get that mileage with gas as well.
I hope the auto industry comes of age like in Euorpe, but I have my serious doubts. Because they want all the fuel tax dollars possible.