Peugeot is predicting a diesel increase to 10 percent of the passenger car market within the next 3 years. Diesel is currently about 2.35 percent of Australia’s passenger cars.
Europeans caught the diesel bug in the ’90s – lured by its cheaper price and higher fuel efficiency – prompting a rise from 13.8 per cent total diesel sales in 1990 to 49.3 per cent last year. Dommerson says it’s now a matter of Australians getting over outdated beliefs about diesel being noisy and smelly.
Well doesn’t that sound familiar?
“The accelerator [of sales growth] is the diesel engine. It has come on leaps and bounds in terms of both the environment and performance. Petrol engines have really gone as far as they can go, but diesel engines can be refined even more so. Really, diesel engines have leapfrogged petrols [in terms of technology].”
I doubt gas engines are as far as they can go(there’s some pretty smart people with at GM look at the LSx line of engines), but yes, I’m sure diesel engines can be refined much more. And with more emphasis put on it in the next decade I’m sure we’ll see alot of exciting advances.