"VW's ultra-low emission Jetta BlueTDI will be coming to the US mid-summer, according to an announcement made late last month at the Vienna Motor Symposium. This newer version of the Jetta will meet the strictest emissions standards in the world—BIN5/LEV2—which are enforced by 5 US states: California, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Vermont. BIN5/LEV2 standards severely cap nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions (0.05 g/mile), one of the two tailpipe pollutants that have given diesels a bad rap (that and particulate matter)."
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I'd be interested in people's feedback on this turbodiesel car. 60 MPG seems pretty darned good to me and it clearly beats most current cars by a huge amount, but with this kind of mileage, how appealing or unappealing is a car that is still based on a hydrocarbon, greenhouse-gas generating fuel?
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Why do I have the urge to ask for another time line?
One in which the world doesn't seem to be going crazy.....
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"Volkswagen of America spokesman Keith Price is now able to ballpark U.S. volume allotments on the '09 Jetta SportWagen. "We expect to sell 14,000-15,000 Jetta SportWagens in the U.S.," he said. "About half will be diesel." He said the gas-powered Jetta SportWagen will go on sale at the end of July, starting at approximately $19,000.
The clean diesel-powered Jetta SportWagen is slated to hit showrooms here at the end of August, starting at approximately $22,000. Price said formal pricing on the SportWagen will be announced later this summer."
The bold emphasis is mine. So, you can have your car and a full tank, too!
BTW, the Hyundai i30, a conventional car which is for sale in Australia, completed the 2007 World Solar Challenge in Australia (Darwin to Adelaide) with a fuel efficiency of 73.5 MPG (3.2 litres per 100 km). In the process, the Hyundai produced 97grams of CO2-e per km in greenhouse gas emissions.
Yes, particulate matter still is a problem with diesel. The fine particles settle deep in the lungs and can cause infections there. Also, the impact of particulate matter on global warming is underestimated, according to this study, which argues that carbon in the air absorbs both direct sunlight, as well as the light reflected within the atmosphere. The latter was until now not included in calculations, as I understand. Also, these fine particles go high up in the atmosphere and therefore reach far-away places, such as Antarctica, where they blacken the ice and cause albedo change. It may seem small, but it all adds up.
As you know, I advocate a framework of FeeBates, with fees imposed on new gasoline cars, with the proceeds used to fund rebates on electric cars. And another FeeBate that imposes fees of fossil fuel, while the proceeds are used to support rebates on purchase and installation of wind turbines and solar facilities.
Biodiesel is cleaner than other gas or diesel in terms of sulfur content, so it isn't all bad news with diesel. I guess I just hope that people who insist on driving a relatively traditional car will at least switch to high mpg cars, of one type or another, to cut demand and emissions, and conserve oil. Of course, many of us can't change cars overnight for economic reasons- new cars are expensive and there aren't many used cars of the high mpg type, I suspect.
I wonder how much turbo-diesel performance would suffer by filtering out the particulates from the tailpipe emissions. Probably, there would be a significant drop in performance- otherwise I assume it would have been done already.
Thanks Gerry!
Thanks for the info on the tripod. I'm not sure what I will do yet. When I do it, I'll let you know.