TDI; was: Europe trip/Me too!

[Lawrence C Leung]

At least in the mid-eighties in my engineering program, as a general
rule, an electric power plant (where they exist! from what I've seen in
CA, this may be difficult!) could get about 35 - 40% per BTU of fuel
energy (Joules for the rest of the world) vs. between 10-15% for
automobiles. Note this was up to date data before the SUV became so
popular. But, obviously, it's not the eighties, so lets give automobiles
a respectable 33% improvement in fuel efficiency, which brings
automobiles overall efficiency up to 20-25 %. Give Diesels a 200%
advantage over those mid-eighties cars and we are still somwhere south of
30%, and there are less diesel cars out there to help the overall fuel
efficiency for transportation. Whoops, I forgot, in spite of all of the
improvements of engine efficiency (there have been MANY), stuffed into a
4500 to 7000 lb SUV the end result is the most popular type of personal
vehicular transportation no more efficient than cars of the mid -80's. So
those "knee-jerk" environmentalist aren't too far off track, it's the
"knee-jerk" (or is that just "jerk") politicians that carried things too
far in CA. There is a definite point to hybrid and electric vehicles, the
re-location of the pollution is to devices that are a) more efficient, b)
more likely to be maintained, c) as technology develops, stationary
devices are more likely to be upgraded but, as Californians found out,
the NIMBY attitude has resulted in some rather serious personal and
business related inconviences due to rather poor planning and foresight
by "Town Planners".(what an ironic title!). 

This is not to say that Electric and Hybrid cars are the end all and be
all of our problems. Pure electrics are yet to be practical (the EV1 may
have some straight line cojones, but they don't go real far, handle like
a chebby Caprice 'cuz they weigh that much and they are two seaters) and
the current hybrids are a mixed bag but they definitely have a place. And
I will have to admit, they do not convert ALL of their electrical energy
into transportation. TDI's could truely improve things by reducing
hydrocarbon uses but they are, at least at this time, cleaner overall
than electrics, remote pollution or not. I'd even consider a TDI, but as
I'm no where near in the position or market for a car (much less a "new"
one!) I'll stick by my 200Q.  Still I do feel guilty driving it,
especially when all I'm getting is 19 MPG in around town driving, but I
certainly can't justify buying a new TDI to replace my current Q and I'd
have to admit I do get a grin when I press the go pedal. Nonetheless,
when I resurect my modified by Mother Nature GTi Solo2 car, I will still
make it a streetable race car (i.e. Street Prepared), so that I can get a
more efficient vehicle up for my daily commute. I'll save the 200 for
highway trips where it's fuel efficiency (hence reduction of pollution)
is more in line of a newer car. 

LL - NY

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001 11:58:46 EST JanDebL at aol.com writes:
>You're are correct about CA's environmental position.  In the airline 
>
>industry they are trying to force all the commercial carriers to get 
>rid of 
>their internal combustion engines on the ground service equipment, 
>(baggage 
>tractors, cargo loaders, etc.) and replace them with electric powered 
>
>vehicles.  Proponents say this will help reduce the air pollution - 
>opponents 
>disagree that electric power will only shift the pollution to the 
>power 
>plants.  In addition there is no infrastructure for bring the power to 
>the 
>airports or distributing it.  Certainly we should be all striving to 
>reduce 
>pollution where ever we can but these fanatics with their knee jerk 
>reactions 
>are causing more problems than they are creating.  Examples include 
>their ban 
>on electric power plants construction and the rolling blackout problem 
>makes 
>it clear (at least to me) that some has not done their homework.  Its 
>too 
>bad, as most every diesel manufacturer both commercial and industrial, 
>have 
>made gigantic improvements in combustion efficiency and emission 
>reductions.
>Jan Lahtonen