Re: "Wide Open Throttle"
If it's not economically feasible to clean NOx from diesel exhaust, this will be the end of the diesel car. Thoughts and questions:
Firstly, is urea in the quantities needed to clean the exhaust particularly expensive (and just how much is needed? ) Could diesel cars be made with an easily owner-filled urea tank, so that owners just have to tip a bottle of the stuff in when the low urea light comes on? (A bit like tipping engine oil into engines of 1960s vintage that ate oil at quite significant miles-per-liter rates even when new).
Secondly, if it's a problem only under light loads when the engine runs very lean, it's a good match to hybrid technology. Don't ever run the engine lean. Shut it down and run on the battery until more electricity is needed. Then restart the engine and run at the emissions-optimized power output until the battery is recharged.
One other thing: diesel fuel is taxed less than it should be in comparison to petrol. If the tax reflected the energy content of the fuels, then modern petrol-engined cars would look better value even to long-distance motorists. Diesel would once again become something used almost exclusively by off-road vehicles and goods vehicles.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
