Volkswagen is the latest car company to announce plans to introduce a vehicle that combines hybrid and diesel technologies. The company says that a diesel-hybrid Golf, to be offered in Europe as early as 2009, will achieve 70 miles to the gallon, and pass tough diesel emissions standards in Europe and California.
Joseph, How Do You Think One Of These Would Work At -20F to -30F?
I’d be interest with this system in a larger body, but what about cold-starting, passenger heat/defrost availability, fuel jelling, etcetera. Would I need heaters for coolant, battery, fuel, etcetera, or is all this a thing of the past?
I made a few road trips in a Rabbit Diesel in the 70s-80s when I worked at VW. What’s you opinion? It gets cold where I live. I feel like I’m punishing my car when I start it in these conditions, but it seems to take it.
Would it make more sense to just go pure deisel?
CSA
I would say ‘yes’…it would be like a mini train. (Trains are essentially a hybrid diesel electric engine)
Would it make more sense to just go pure deisel?
Yes. And today’s direct-injection diesels are nothing like the 70/80’s junk. Cold weather is not that big of a deal, for instance (yes, I remember the 1 minute wait for glow-plug issue).
“I am wondering if anyone has heard why there is no diesel hybrid? It seems a natural to me (now that diesels have been cleaned up).”
They haven’t been cleaned up enough…Particulates and NOx are still unsolved problems. That and diesel fuel production can’t be expanded to meet any serious increase in demand in this country…
Hogwash, the NOx problems have been solved.
When compared to gasoline engines, today’s bluetec engines are much cleaner in every aspect, even NOx which is almost completely eliminated by converting it to nitrogen and water.
And if you live in LA and have a bluetec engine, the air leaving the tailpipe is cleaner than the air entering the engine. They should pay you to drive!
Diesels are quieter, get 30-40% better mileage per gallon of fuel, run cleaner, and diesel requires less energy to refine than gasoline. Saying that production can’t be expanded is crazy. If you replace one gasoline car with a modern diesel, you just added 30-40% more capacity into the system. Do this on a large scale the the refinery shortage is solved.