News and Insights

The death of diesel – what the future holds

Petrol and diesel cars will no longer be sold new in the UK from 2030 in line with a Government directive.

Car makers are busy making the switch to electrification and there’s no turning back.

Currently there are all-electric, mild hybrid (MHEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) options for car buyers, as well as traditional petrol and diesel-engined vehicles.

Hybrids combine battery power with internal combustion engines and their environmental credentials ensure they sit far higher in the league table of lean, green cars than their pure diesel and petrol counterparts.

But what of diesel and what does the future hold for it?

Once considered as a dirty fuel for crude engines that powered lorries, buses and tractors – diesel became the next big thing due to developing technology.

 Warwickshire automotive expert Dr Charles Tennant, who was formerly chief engineer at Land Rover and also sat on the board of Tata Technologies says

“Diesel powered passenger car were once few and far between with the oily fuel perceived as only acceptable for lorries and trains.

“And there was good reason too as diesel engines tended to puff out black smoke, whilst being noisier and under-powered compared to the new breed of advanced electronic fuel injected multi-valve petrol engines, which delivered refined power and acceptable fuel economy for the masses.

“They were also good for company car drivers here in the UK as their 2.0-litre tax efficient petrol vehicles sat low in the HMRC benefit-in-kind taxation class.

“Then as emission standards were tightened in the EU automotive companies simply abandoned their ‘lean-burn’ fuel efficient petrol engine designs and followed the USA and added catalytic converters with exhaust-gas-recirculation to achieve compliance.

“Then a disruptive innovation occurred with the development of the ‘common rail’ diesel system – a high-pressure direct fuel injection running at an incredible 29,000 psi and controlled electronically. Whereas the earlier diesel engines were low-pressure and mechanically controlled.

“When the EU selected carbon dioxide (CO2) back in 1997 as their main target for future automotive emission reduction targets, diesel which generates 12% more energy per gallon than petrol and delivers about 25% more mileage per gallon and 40% less CO2; government policy makers jumped on the bandwagon with tax incentives to encourage diesel car purchases.

“And consumers lapped it up once they realised that these new diesel engines were very refined at producing exceptional low-end torque making them quite pleasurable to drive, and of course were very fuel efficient.

“All automotive companies started selling higher numbers of diesel-powered cars – even performance brands such as Porsche – and sales boomed to 50% of all European car sales over the next decade.”

Source: Coventry Evening Telegraph