{"id":6310,"date":"2015-11-11T21:47:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T20:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310"},"modified":"2015-11-11T21:47:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T20:47:35","slug":"are-diesels-days-numbered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310","title":{"rendered":"Are diesel’s days numbered?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-09-22<\/a>Are diesel’s days numbered?\u00a0 This has been the question that people have been asking in the last few weeks since the Volkswagen<\/a> scandal.\u00a0 People in Europe (not the US sales are very low there) were persuaded to buy diesel cars for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 Lower CO2<\/sub> emissions and much better economy.\u00a0 These were reinforced by tax breaks on the fuel.\u00a0 Essentially what happened is this; the French government decided to support its carmakers by getting then to develop diesel cars after the first oil crisis.\u00a0 The same thing happened in the US but after some real clunkers America gave up (which affects US thinking on diesel cars until today).\u00a0 The French and then other European manufacturers persevered.\u00a0 The early models were poor, I remember as a child a friends mother giving me a lift home in French one.\u00a0 We had to sit in the snow for 5 minutes while the fuel warmed up.\u00a0 It was also difficult to buy diesel fuel, only filling stations used by trucks sold it.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0 in recent years the technology has improved.\u00a0 Glowplugs mean no waiting for warmup, turbochargers mean its not like driving a taxi and diesel fuel is available everywhere.\u00a0 There is just one problem NOx (nitrogen oxides).\u00a0 Nitrogen gas is a triple bonded molecule formed of two nitrogen atoms.\u00a0 Breaking it takes a lot of energy, combustion supplies that energy and for some reason diesel cars produce more NOx than petrol cars.\u00a0 NOx forms acid rain, exacerbates asthma and other lung pathologies and causes stomach cancer.\u00a0 Its also a greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n

We like many others switched to diesel for the reasons above, but have recently switched back (before all this broke so for unrelated reasons).\u00a0 I miss the power of the diesel car, which always had grunt however loaded up and its economy.\u00a0 Our petrol car is a bit underpowered and needs a larger engine (sometimes lack of power this is dangerous – I’m not a speed freak).\u00a0 However I’m glad we switched.\u00a0\u00a0 Whilst it looked like petrol cars were going the way of the dodo round here I have read today (completely coincidently apparently) that car manufacturers have been working on petrol cars.\u00a0 There are now models coming out with turbochargers (ironic since they were developed for petrol) and achieve 100mpg, in the same range as diesel cars.<\/p>\n

Of course a couple of things need to be said.\u00a0 First, however economical our cars are we need to cut down on their use for reasons regular readers of this site will be familiar with.\u00a0 Second, there is at least a possibility that real world data may have been doctored and these cars are not as good in real life as they are made out.\u00a0 Nevertheless the fact that manufacturers are working on petrol models and they are getting “greener” is encouraging.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are diesel’s days numbered?\u00a0 This has been the question that people have been asking in the last few weeks since the Volkswagen scandal.\u00a0 People in Europe (not the US sales are very low there) were persuaded to buy diesel cars … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28,3],"tags":[162,161,163],"class_list":["post-6310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","category-other","category-peak-oil","tag-cars","tag-diesel","tag-driving"],"yoast_head":"\nAre diesel's days numbered? - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Are diesel's days numbered?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310\",\"name\":\"Are diesel's days numbered? - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-22-14.12.401-e1442950934263-225x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-11T20:47:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f2831189b0d01294e9672bb540ba6f\"},\"description\":\"Are diesel's days numbered?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-22-14.12.401-e1442950934263-225x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-22-14.12.401-e1442950934263-225x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Are diesel’s days numbered?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil\",\"description\":\"Blogging by Neil and Andy about Peak oil and faith.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f2831189b0d01294e9672bb540ba6f\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2070f70411f2eab27f08cd0b2332e27e3987c781423ecba6c16b575181ce2a6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2070f70411f2eab27f08cd0b2332e27e3987c781423ecba6c16b575181ce2a6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are diesel's days numbered? - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil","description":"Are diesel's days numbered?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310","url":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310","name":"Are diesel's days numbered? - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-22-14.12.401-e1442950934263-225x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-11-11T20:47:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f2831189b0d01294e9672bb540ba6f"},"description":"Are diesel's days numbered?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-22-14.12.401-e1442950934263-225x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-22-14.12.401-e1442950934263-225x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6310#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are diesel’s days numbered?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/","name":"The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil","description":"Blogging by Neil and Andy about Peak oil and faith.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b6f2831189b0d01294e9672bb540ba6f","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2070f70411f2eab27f08cd0b2332e27e3987c781423ecba6c16b575181ce2a6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2070f70411f2eab27f08cd0b2332e27e3987c781423ecba6c16b575181ce2a6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6310"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6318,"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6310\/revisions\/6318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}