Related Sections: Vehicles
Mercedes wants to eliminate fossil fuel powered cars by 2015...maybe
Reports are swirling the Mercedes has plans to switch its entire car fleet over to alternate fuels by 2015. At first blush that sounds impossible, although when you realize that they are throwing in biofuel and hybrid cars along with the more radical electric and hydrogen options, it becomes clear that biodiesel is their real backup plan. The key point being that any engine designed for biodiesel, will also run just fine on fossil fuel based pump diesel.
While the rest of the world has already figured out the benefits of diesel, this would be a much more difficult transition in the US, where it seems they are still firing salvos in the horsepower race with arch rivals Audi and BMW. Perhaps $4+ gas is finally making people reconsider their priorities.
The other problem with this story is that the original source appears to be The Sun, which is kind of like Britain's answer to the New York Post. So I'm not sure how literally we can take the claims.
The Sun, via Treehugger.com
By Weebork at 1:59 PM ON 06/29/08
Diesel may be the answer because of its efficiency, but this will be oil based diesel and not biodiesel. Biodiesel sounds like a good idea on paper, but mass producing it for general consumption will prove to be a problem. A prime example of what I mean is dopey corn ethanol. The US, and by that I mean the pinheads in D.C., mandated corn ethanol. The result was wholesale corn prices to rocket up, hurting many people who rely on corn meal as a daily staple, such as in Mexico. Now the pinheads realized their corn ethanol wasn't quite as good as they thought it was and are now working on getting their mandates repealed.
Of course, oil based diesel already has a well established infrastructure which allows a lot of it to be made and shipped to all over the world relatively easily and cheaply. Biodiesel could only dream of such. There is also the issue of efficiency of oil vs plant biodiesel, the latter being more energy dense than the former (energy density is the amount of energy you get out of a particular volume). So while biodiesel may be cleaner per unit of volume that is burned, just like ethanol, you have to burn more of it to get the same power, thereby decreasing your overall mpg. If the point is to increase the mpg of a vehicle, switching over to biodiesel vs gasoline may prove to only be high cost with little in return.
For me, if the noise of a diesel vs unleaded engine could be reduced, that knocking sound just gets to me, I'd be a lot more happy to consider diesel.
By TheButterZone at 2:01 PM ON 06/29/08
Might require a mass education campaign about the higher efficiency of diesel. The uninitiated see prices like this...
$5.07 - diesel
$4.39 - regular unleaded at the same station
and what type of vehicle do you think they'll favor?
By Weebork at 10:46 PM ON 06/29/08
A clarification.
"There is also the issue of efficiency of oil vs plant biodiesel, the latter being more energy dense than the former..." should read
"The is also the issue of efficiency of oil vs plant diesel, the former being more energy dense than the latter..."
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
All rights reserved.
Weebork:
A clarification. "There is also the issue of efficiency of oil vs plant biodiesel, the latter being more energy de...More »