On Target 7 – Diesel is dying

I have several Euro VI vehicles in my fleet, certainly enough to ensure I don’t pay fees to go anywhere, at least for now.  I also have a diesel car, but I won’t be able to pop into London without paying £12 as it is only Euro 5 spec. Not that I would want to anyway, but some have too. Might be more of an issue when the ULEZ spreads to greater London and other cities, when I will be looking to go electric.

Looking at my fleet, all with diesel engines requiring regular oil changes, adjustments, emission testing, filter changes, never mind the fancy gearbox, which is only there because the engine doesn’t have enough puff to drive the vehicle without a series of gears to work its way up to its maximum efficiency which, even then, is only 30%. To help the poor old girl, they have bolted on a turbo or two and pressurised the fuel injection, so it leaks easier and is more likely to catch fire as everything is so highly stressed. So much so, that it will be compulsory to have a fire protection system fitted to your new vehicles soon.  A bit like having a Firefighter, ready at home in case something goes up in flames.

Bolted onto that is a dustbin with very expensive precious metals inside mined from a despotic country

Inside, you have pistons going up and down 1,000 – 2,000 times a minute, with a camshaft driving valves and valve clearances to check, not to mention keeping the damned thing cool with a water pump and radiator and, to produce electricity, up to three alternators, driven with a bit of rubber. Bolted onto that is a dustbin with very expensive precious metals inside mined from a despotic country, which attempts to undo all the environmental damage the explosions can cause, but inevitably clogs up if you don’t go down the motorway one a week, even if you don’t have a need.

Coupled with that is the injection of pig’s urine called AdBlue.  The DPF then needs to be cleaned, by heating it up to a very high temperature and let the poor sods who live around the cleansing plant have the fallout from that instead of us.  Or, the DIY version; rev the nuts off your engine, otherwise known as ‘regen,’ that usually does the trick, otherwise a new DPF at around £6,000.  While all of this is going on, the temperature inside the engine bay is so hot, it eventually fries the wiring loom, which then sends all sorts of signals to your electronic dashboard to do something.

Moving onto the gearbox, you either have an automated manual, which changes gear itself, but has all the advantages of a manual gearbox as direct drive. But inevitably, it’s crude. Or, you have fully automatic gearbox, with an increasing number of gears, to overcome the deficiencies of the engine. Luckily the engine and gearbox talk to each other. I can only imagine that this is something along the lines of ‘is that the best you can do?’ On top of all this, they are really noisy, so the vehicle has to have sound proofing to silence the racket going on below decks.

I am all for electric vehicles; simple, with a motor or two, which will last a lot longer, with few moving parts, no gearbox, no need to have an alternator

I am all for electric vehicles; simple, with a motor or two, which will last a lot longer, with few moving parts, no gearbox, no need to have an alternator, acts as a brake and takes up less room. No filthy engine maintenance, filter blockages and totally emission free. Batteries are getting smaller and more powerful. I have a jump box, not much bigger than a book, which will start a big diesel. That’s how far battery technology has come. Remember your old mobile phone, like a brick? The technology is moving on so fast, it won’t be long before everything is electric. Buses first, but coach will follow along; our clients driving their quiet electric cars, won’t want to travel in you super bus or coach with an explosive fire raging in the back, with all the noise that entails.

Every home and business in the country has a fuel station within it; why not harness that source, rather than driving around with 150-year-old technology?   If the Martians landed here, they would not believe we put up with such an inefficient means of motivation. However, they will understand the 90% efficiency of the super-smooth electric vehicle, which I shall provide for their familiarisation visits.  Proactively looking ahead as ever!