So much for a Nissan Leaf!

[toppop52]

If I was going electric, it would have to be a plug in hybrid. No way I'm getting stuck in the sticks because my golf cart ran out of charge!

 

[houstonscott]

I keep thinking about going electric for a vehicle, but I have a 200 mile commute twice a week. So far I am happy getting 56-58mpg with my TDI Passat. I am in the process of designing my next/final home and it will be as energy efficient as I can make it, within financial reason. Looking to do grid tied solar powered with geothermal heating/cooling with off-grid planned in so if I want to go off-grid I can. The cost of power is only going to go one direction, the question is... how fast. I too am watching what the lunatics in Augusta are going to do about the CMP rate request. Power in Maine is already more expensive than anywhere else I have ever lived, almost twice what I was paying in Taxachusetts.

Yeah, high pressure diesel is the answer. I own a BMW 335d, it's spectacular, in every respect, and easily breaks 40 mpg if you can control the fun and stay below 65mph. Think corvette/Prius married into a real nice 4 dr sedan. I'd own a diesel passat in a minute. HS

 

[3930dave]

I've ranted at great length in other threads about the dearth of light diesel offerings in Canada/USA.

All of the major European manufacturers usually have good diesel offerings available. Nice to see a few more models trickling into this continent.

The nice thing about the larger diesels you get in something like VWs Toureg (sp?) is they get you away from timing belts/changes. I don't know the other ones at all, but suspect cam design to be chain-driven on the larger BMW and Audi diesels too. AFAIK, we don't get any smaller (ie. Euro market small) diesels from BMW or Audi here...

As I've said before, kudos to VW for continuing to supply the Canadian and USA markets with diesels cars for the last number of decades. W/O VW, many years there would have been no new diesels available as light vehicles here. Here, Mercedes is the only other diesel player with that kind of record.

I think a diesel electric hybrid would be my personal Holy Grail. Haven't gone looking at the Euro market offerings for that, in some ways I don't want to know (more) about what I can't have here....

Rgds, D.

 

[Tollster]

Yeah, high pressure diesel is the answer. I own a BMW 335d, it's spectacular, in every respect, and easily breaks 40 mpg if you can control the fun and stay below 65mph. Think corvette/Prius married into a real nice 4 dr sedan. I'd own a diesel passat in a minute. HS

I've always wondered why they can't get that kind of mileage out of a diesel truck, even if they put in a high and low range outside of the four wheel drive, like the larger trucks in the 50's and 60's.

That VW diesel has been around for a while, but you rarely see that kind of mileage out of any other manufacturers.

Look at the mileage of the American 1 ton and 3/4 ton diesels, maybe half if that.

 

[houstonscott]

The VW polo, (think golf, just bit smaller, but not much) with a smaller three cylinder diesel breaks 100mpg. We don't get them here, hybrids would sit on lots if they would bring them. HS

 

[3930dave]

The VW polo, (think golf, just bit smaller, but not much) with a smaller three cylinder diesel breaks 100mpg. We don't get them here, hybrids would sit on lots if they would bring them. HS

That's why I laugh (beats tearing my hair out) when some govt talking head here starts going on about energy efficiency and security. Sounds good.... until you look at what the rest of the world uses.....

Rgds, D.

 

[aczlan]

The VW polo, (think golf, just bit smaller, but not much) with a smaller three cylinder diesel breaks 100mpg. We don't get them here, hybrids would sit on lots if they would bring them. HS

Can you show a source on that?
The VW UK site (polo-v : Volkswagen UK) shows a best highway mileage for the Polo with a BlueMotion 1.2 TDI 75PS engine as 91.1 miles per IMPERIAL gallon or 3.1L/100KM. That translates to 75.88 miles per US gallon.
Still good and I wish we could get them, but not 100MPG.

Aaron Z

 

[3930dave]

Can you show a source on that?
The VW UK site (polo-v : Volkswagen UK) shows a best highway mileage for the Polo with a BlueMotion 1.2 TDI 75PS engine as 91.1 miles per IMPERIAL gallon or 3.1L/100KM. That translates to 75.88 miles per US gallon.
Still good and I wish we could get them, but not 100MPG.

Aaron Z

Still, at 3.1 that beats a hybrid, and uses a lower cost platform to do it. I call that good engineering, a term I don't use lightly.

Now if VW would just turn loose a diesel hybrid , they'd own the market.

Rgds, D.

 

[houstonscott]

Can you show a source on that? The VW UK site (polo-v : Volkswagen UK) shows a best highway mileage for the Polo with a BlueMotion 1.2 TDI 75PS engine as 91.1 miles per IMPERIAL gallon or 3.1L/100KM. That translates to 75.88 miles per US gallon. Still good and I wish we could get them, but not 100MPG. Aaron Z

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRcHeUkCXM&autoplay=1

You know that EPA estimates for diesels run about 10-15% low from real life, while the reverse is true of hybrids. It's the 1000cc three cylinder that breaks 100mpg.

HS

 

[aczlan]

Still, at 3.1 that beats a hybrid, and uses a lower cost platform to do it. I call that good engineering, a term I don't use lightly.
Now if VW would just turn loose a diesel hybrid , they'd own the market.

I agree. If there is one place where a diesel shines, its in a constant speed situation like one gets running the generator of a series hybrid.
Given how good DI gas engines are getting, a mini version of the Ford EB might be interesting to see in there as well (to avoid the nastiness of diesel emissions equipment).

Aaron Z