Diesels Better Than Hybrids?
It’s well known that diesel based engines are more efficient than those running on gasoline, and that in terms of price and pollution they are also better. But what if I told you that diesels are even better than hybrids? Yes, PopularMechanics reports that in the late 70s and early 80s diesel engines didn’t offer much more and were loud, lacking in performance and produced too much smoke and exhaust fumes.
Today’s clean diesels, such as this engine from a Euro-spec 2007 VW Polo, can offer better fuel economy (74.3 mpg) and produce fewer greenhouse gases than some gas/electric hybrids.
Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago, when the twin energy crises of the 1970s propelled diesels into national popularity and kept them there for a decade.
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Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. The new cars run as well as their gasoline-powered competitors. And as for the emissions problems of the past, well, the dirty bird of fossil fuels isn’t so dirty anymore.
So, those of you running your cars on diesel may be proud of your engines and can feel more secure in that fact. There’s no need to hide, but on the hand, it doesn’t matter whether diesel is better than a hybrid or vice-versa. Both have room for development, and each can contribute to helping the environment.
Photo: © A. Belani
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