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Diesel For Future General Motors Autos
Detroit automaker General Motors, the largest American car company, is planning to introduce diesel vehicles in the United States auto market before the end of the decade. The plan was divulged by the outspoken vice chairman of the company, Bob Lutz.
“We're doing a bunch of them,” said Lutz. The popularity of diesel is continually increasing as the demand for fuel efficient vehicles continue to rise. In Europe, carmakers are already offering high-performance vehicles. The popularity of diesel engines among European carmakers is evident at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans where Audi and Peugeot fielded diesel race cars with Audi eventually edging out Peugeot for the win.
In the United States, carmakers are already taking notice of the promise of diesel engines of good fuel efficiency and how well their performance. In the past, diesel engines have been looked at with contempt by Americans. This is because the first batch of diesel engines to reach the United States was noisy and produces black soot in great amounts.
The new generation of diesel engines though are now equipped with particulate filters which virtually eliminate the emission of black soot. Other filtration technologies are also being developed by carmakers and these are used to make the new generation of diesel engines more eco-friendly than their predecessors.
Added advantage of using diesel engines is that petroleum diesel is priced lower than gasoline. With the price of petroleum products continually on the rise, using diesel vehicles makes more sense. Diesel engines are also known for their high torque output. High torque means faster acceleration. This means that not only budget conscious car buyers can be benefited by General Motors’ plan to introduce diesels in the
near future but performance enthusiasts as well.
Lutz said that General Motors will offer cars, SUVs, and crossovers with diesel engines in addition to diesel light duty trucks like the Sierra with its GMC pickup bed cap and other components. Aside from pickup trucks from General Motors which are already offered with diesel engines, large vans from General Motors are already being offered with diesel variants.
The plan of the Detroit carmaker to jump into the diesel bandwagon is a good one considering the demand for fuel efficient vehicles which will make the country less energy dependent. Biodiesel is also offered in many refilling stations in the country now and this would further make General Motors’ diesel cars more attractive to consumers.
Generally, diesel engines are more fuel efficient than gasoline engines. This is because of the way fuel is introduced into the combustion chamber. While gasoline is first injected into the combustion chamber and then compressed before being ignited, diesel fuel is immediately burned upon injection into the combustion chamber. Complemented with modern emission filtration technologies and the lower price of diesel fuel, it is only surprising that we still do not see an abundance of diesel vehicles in the auto market.
According to Lutz, when they come up with diesel vehicles, these will be equipped with six-cylinder engines although he did not provide any specifications for the engine/s which they will be using. For SUVs, Lutz said that they will be using a bigger eight-cylinder diesel engine. The carmaker is already offering many diesel models in Europe, and the North American auto market will be their next target.
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