I talked about this once before, but since it’s actually going to be revealed this week I thought I’d bring it back.

Citreon is committed to having production diesel-electric cars by 2008, and as far as I’m aware they are the first car company to do that. If you remember the C-Matisse will have a V6 diesel for the front wheels, and two electric motors for the rear wheels.

Like the Toyota Prius, the C-Matisse has a bank of batteries (the C-Matisse’s over the rear wheels) that are recharged from energy created by braking. The added benefit is that the extra weight over the rear helps distribute weight to benefit handling. It will also be able to operate at lower speeds using the silent eletric motors, but when the driver is going faster or wants to accelerate hard is when the diesel kicks in.

0-100kph(0-62mph) in 6.2 seconds
City/Highway mileage is a combined 36mpg or 6.3litres for 100km.

BERU AG, in which BorgWarner holds a majority stake, has been honored with a 2006 Automechanika Innovation Award for its pressure-sensor glow plug. The award jury, comprised of leading representatives of science, industry and the media, considered criteria such as originality, functionality, quality and environmental compatibility in assessing more than 100 nominations from 80- some companies in 15 countries. The BERU glow plug was honored in the “Parts” category, and was one of only 13 innovations selected in 8 product categories.

With BERU’s technology advances diesel’s could get a closed loop system similar to cars for the first time. BERU developed a glow plug/pressure sensor that will not only help fuel economy even more, but also emissions. If a computer can monitor the pressure inside a cylinder it will be able to send fuel in at the optimum time.

The BERU pressure-sensor glow plug provides accurate and stable pressure signals from the engine combustion chamber, permitting the use of closed-loop controls in series production. The system consists of a robust heating rod from the BERU diesel Instant Starting System, combined with a sensor that records the quickly changing pressure levels in the combustion chamber and relays the information to the electronic engine controls.

The system should debut in 2007 in two of the world’s largest manufacturers.  Could this be part of the reason GM is bragging so much about their upcoming diesel?

Source: The Auto Channel

Diesel-Driving Motorists Hoping to Save Money Find They’re Burning It Instead

By Kyle Kennedy
The Ledger

LAKELAND
Three years ago, Bill Braggs was happy to spend thousands of extra dollars for a diesel pickup, figuring that cheap fuel and a durable engine would eventually pay for itself. But as gasoline prices continue to plummet toward $2 per gallon, diesel prices have remained unusually high and frugal motorists like Braggs are wondering what happened to their expected savings.

“I bought it because of the supposed economy of it. And diesel engines last a lot longer than gasoline engines. I figured, I’m 65 years old, and this will last me the rest of my life,” Braggs said of his 2003 Ford F-250 Super Duty truck. “And here I am, paying higher fuel prices.”

The national average for regular-grade gasoline stood at $2.38 per gallon Monday, compared with $2.73 for diesel, according to AAA. During the past month, average prices have fallen 49 cents for gas and 37 cents for diesel; but since last year, gas is down 40 cents per gallon while diesel has dipped just 12 cents.

“Right now, we see gas prices tumble like crazy. We haven’t seen that for diesel yet,” said Tom Kloza, editor of the Oil Price Information Service of Wall, N.J.

Analysts say there are several reasons for elevated diesel prices, the most significant being a change in how the fuel is formulated. Starting Oct. 15, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will require that diesel meet standards for ultra-low sulfur content, meaning that refiners have been adjusting production to account for the change and costs may have risen as a result. In addition, speculation about the supply and distribution of the new diesel has kept prices high.

“Whenever there’s a change in specifications, it tends to create uncertainty,” Kloza said. “You have to find out if the industry is up to the challenge of making the fuel and meeting demand.”

Diesel prices also tend to rise during the fall because of increased demand from truckers transporting holiday merchandise, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. Cold-weather months also see high demand for heating oil, which is made from distillate, the same substance as diesel.

Diesel engines are typically 20 to 40 percent more efficient than their gasoline-burning counterparts, according to Diesel Technology Forum, an advocacy group for the fuel. Though normally more expensive than gas engines, diesel engines are touted for their longevity, and historically, diesel drivers often paid less at the pump.  However, even though diesel engines accounted for just
3.6 percent of U.S. vehicle sales last year, according to market research firm J.D. Power and Associates, diesel cars remain popular in Europe and developing countries, ensuring strong worldwide demand for the fuel, said Oil Price Information Service analyst Denton Cinquegrana.

While diesel prices may fluctuate with seasonal demand, the energy association projects the national average to hover around $2.70 per gallon through this year and 2007.

For Braggs, of Lakeland, high diesel costs have forced a reevaluation of his retirement plans. He once planned to use his diesel truck to haul a 40-foot travel trailer across the U.S., but says the fuel costs would now be too much.

“I’ve got the camper sitting in my backyard,” he said. “You wanna buy it?”

Kyle Kennedy can be reached at kyle.kennedy@theledger.com or 863-802-7584.

So he is trying to say when gas and diesel prices were both around $3 this guy’s retirement plan was fine, but now that diesel hasn’t dropped as much as gas, his retirement plans are off?  Would he have been better off buying a gas truck and hauling his trailer with that?  Even if the truck only gets 20% better mileage, at the price points above, he’s still saving money.  Granted not as much as probably a year or two ago.  He should have also been saving money over gas up until this point since he bought it in 2003.  I guess this has to be expected though.  There were so many pro-diesel articles when gas was around $3 a gallon.  Now we’ll see the other side cause that’s just how the media is.  Always has to be trying to scare you in some way so you pay attention.

MARK PHELAN:

GM’s new diesel is powerful, efficient

August 25, 2006

General Motors Group Vice President Powertrain Tom Stephens announces Thursday that GM will produce a new light-duty diesel engine that will improve fuel efficiency. (JEFFREY SAUGER/General Motors)

• GM’s Duramax engine to get overhaul
If you peered over Charlie Freese’s shoulder toward the horizon Thursday, you just might have seen the future of the American muscle car. Or, at least, the powerful and fuel-efficient diesel engine Cadillac needs if it’s ever going to be a major player in Europe.

Freese had just revealed the first tantalizing information about General Motors Corp.’s 360-horsepower V8 turbodiesel, which will debut sometime after 2009 — probably 2010 or 2011 — in a full-size pickup. Freese is the automaker’s executive director of diesel engineering.

Details are scanty, because GM is waiting to receive patents on some of the engine’s technology, but Freese promised it would meet emissions requirements in all 50 states when it goes on sale. That’s a significant accomplishment. The United States will have the most stringent limits on diesel emissions in the world in 2010.

Other automakers, primarily German brands with a century-plus history of diesel development, have said they expect to be able to meet the requirements, but they don’t know how yet.

GM’s figured it out, said Freese, but it’s not telling anybody until the ink dries on the last digit of the patents.

Here’s what the rest of us know now:

• GM promises the engine will use 25% less fuel than a comparable gasoline V8.

• GM developed the engine to match or beat the world’s finest diesels on power, fuel economy, sound and vibration. That makes it what Freese calls a premium diesel, like the ones that power most luxury sedans like the Audi A8, BMW 7-series and Mercedes-Benz S-class in Germany.

• The turbodiesel features high-pressure direct fuel injection, dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder.

• GM developed it for use in a variety of vehicles, not just big pickups.

• The engine fits in several different families of GM vehicles.

• It may be used in vehicles GM sells around the world.

• It fits in the same engine compartment as GM’s wildly successful small-block gasoline V8, which powers everything from the Chevrolet Corvette, Impala SS and Silverado full-size pickup to the Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV and Pontiac GTO muscle coupe.

• It will be smaller than the 6.6L Duramax V8 GM already builds for heavy-duty versions of its big trucks.

• Emissions of particulates and oxides of nitrogen will be at least 90% lower than current diesels. Carbon dioxide emissions will be 13% lower than from a comparable gasoline engine.

“Diesels are critical to GM,” Freese told me this week. “Globally, diesels are very much in demand,” particularly in Europe, where they account for about 50% of new car sales, and South Korea, where 90% of SUVs roll out of the factory under diesel power. He expects diesel sales to grow in other booming markets, particularly China.

Diesels haven’t been much of a player in North America. They’re used primarily for tractor-trailers, work-oriented heavy-duty pickups and agricultural and construction equipment.

GM was a leader in diesels once, but it lost that position through inattention and eventually sold its Detroit Diesel unit, now owned by DaimlerChrysler.

GM spent the better part of the last decade making up for those mistakes. It builds more than one million diesels a year today. Its model line stretches from a little 1.3-liter diesel that powers small cars in Europe to the 6.6-liter Duramax V8. GM builds the Duramax in Moraine, Ohio, for use in workhorse trucks like the GMC Topkick and Chevrolet Silverado HD. Moraine built about 200,000 Duramax engines last year.

The engine will debut in a pickup because diesel’s combination of power and fuel economy is especially appealing in big, heavy vehicles. Diesel engines cost more than gasoline power plants — nobody will say exactly how much, but $1,000 to $2,000 is a reasonable estimate — but owners get a return on their investment much quicker when a diesel is in vehicles with low fuel economy, such as pickups and SUVs.

The new V8 will plug a gap in GM’s diesel lineup between the 3.0-liter V6 it sells in European cars like the Opel Vectra and the Silverado HD pickup’s stump-pulling 6.6-liter Duramax.

GM’s not saying where the new V8 will come from, but you can bet production will be somewhere in North America and it will be used in high-end vehicles.

That’s why Freese is so adamant when he calls it a premium diesel.

“We benchmarked it against the finest diesels in the world,” including the smooth and powerful ones in top luxury sedans like the Mercedes S-class and Audi A8, he said.

“Our engine needs to be the best,” Freese said. “The alternative for North American buyers is a gasoline engine. The owners of the vehicles that will use the engine have never been exposed to a diesel, so the noise and vibration need to approach the levels of gasoline engines.”

And that opens the door for diesel muscle cars and Cadillacs.

Without a smooth and powerful diesel for cars like its STS sedan, Cadillac is doomed to remain a marginal player in Europe, brand general manager Jim Taylor told me earlier this week.

And imagine a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro with a 360-horsepower V8 and highway fuel economy over 40 m.p.g. That’s my guess on fuel economy, but it’s not unreasonable. It would make the nouveau muscle car appealing to many more buyers, and give GM’s corporate average fuel economy figures a boost from an unexpected corner.

Freese told me the technologies in the V8 may be used in other engines, and I know GM’s Saturn brand is looking for fuel-efficient, low-emissions diesels for some of its upcoming models.

The pickup truck is the start, but keep your eyes on the horizon. There’s more coming.

Contact MARK PHELAN at 313-222-6731 or phelan@freepress.com

Okay so he’s just saying to imagine it, but as a Camaro owner and a diesel owner I’m torn on what to think. The Camaro, for 35 years, has always had a gas V8. Am I just not accepting technology? Would a V8 diesel Camaro be so bad? I guess I’ll have to wait and see if it happens, but it would have to perform comparably to a V8 gasser and still get 40mpg to consider it. I don’t know, but it’s definitely different.