CNET recently reported that Honda will be bringing a 62-MPG diesel powered Accord to the US for the 2010 model year. The article reports, rightly, that it would be as clean as a Prius, and cleaner if it's powered with biodiesel.
What excited me about the car is that Honda is clearly tuning the car to push for efficiency over power. VW has been pushing their TDIs towards power over efficiency, something Honda did with their failed Accord hybrid (which only got in the 30s for MPG). This is the right approach! Hit users with the fuel efficiency angle, then amaze them as they realize it also has power and speed.
Take that efficiency and the ability to run it on domestically grown biodiesel and we have a winning equation. Sign me up. Discuss the diesel Accord and other diesel vehicles in the diesel vehicle section of our forums.
April 25, 2007 3:09 PM PDT
A diesel Honda? That gets 62.8 miles a gallon?
Feast your eyes on this, car technology and high-mileage nuts. It's a Honda Accord that runs on diesel.
Honda expects to bring the clean-diesel car to the U.S. by 2010. It
gets 62.8 miles a gallon on the highway, but otherwise looks and feels
like a regular Accord. At that mileage level, the car is about as
"clean" as a new Toyota Prius. But if you run it on biodiesel, a form
of diesel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, it would be even
cleaner than a Prius (Priuses get 60 in the city).
The advantage of diesel cars, however, is that they pack a lot of power.
(Credit: Courtesy Diesel Technology Forum)
The car was shown off with a number of other cars in Sacramento,
Calif., earlier this month as a way to promote clean diesel cars and
technology. In the '90s, California passed strict emission controls
that restricted the amount of sulfur a car could emit. As a result,
diesel manufacturers curbed sales to California and the U.S. in
general.
Since then, petroleum manufacturers have devised cleaner diesels that
only emit about 15 parts per million of diesel, down from hundreds of
parts per million. That satisfies the California law. Manufacturers,
meanwhile, have come out with more efficient and powerful diesel
engines that get 20 to 40 percent better mileage than their older cars.
"A lot of changes have taken place in the engine, all thanks to electronics," said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum,
which helped organize the Clean Diesel Technology Tour. (Cars from Audi
and a tractor trailer rig from Caterpillar were also shown). "Half the
cars in Europe are diesel."
Thus, diesels, usually thought of as smelly, are now environmentally somewhat sound.
