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Probably going for a GTI for my wife around June time.
At University I did a thesis on PM10 (particulate matter less than 10 microns in size) from diesel ICE, along with studies on Benzene toxicity from Petrol engines. PM10s are hazardous as they can get into your deep lung cavities, Benzene and other aromatics found in petrol are carcinogenic.
Ultimately Diesel isn't the issue here, its a side note to a bigger issue that we need to stop using ICE altogether (unless hydrogen can be rolled out fully). The fumes from both Petrol and Diesel are harmful, catalytic converters are happily pumping micronised platinum into our lungs where it can do damage and ultimately the whole economy is predicated on pumping oil around the world.....
What we really need is all ICE vehicles to be replaced, this is NEVER going to happen through government intervention as long as the government receives funding and backhanders from the oil industry.
The WHO classes diesel exhaust as carcinogenic to humans, while petrol exhaust is classified at the lower level possibly carcinogenic to humans.
From what I've read the PM2.5s are a much worse problem than PM10 as it can get much deeper into the body.
I still think hydrogen can be the way forwards. It gives you a way around the issue of storage of energy and charging times. The problem with renewables like solar is that they aren't available at the right times. If you use surplus electricity in the day from solar (which is now getting very cheap) to electrolyse sea water then you will get hydrogen and you can then use that for transport.
If you go with batteries then you will need the power at the wrong times to charge vehicles. If you actually succeed in making batteries with more capacity they will take even longer to charge. It can already take 10 hours plus to recharge an electric car off a 13A socket. If you increase the capacity to the point where the range is competitive with ICE vehicles you could be looking at more than 24 hours to fully charge. Even if you install a dedicated electric car charger you are still looking at several hours if/when batteries get to that kind of capacity.
If you are going to use hydrogen then fuel cells will be more efficient than a combustion engine. There is something nice about a V8 though.
There are 'Rapid chargers' at every motorway service station that can charge your batteries up to 80 % in under 30 minutes. Still if EV's take off they're going to need lots more of them.
Did you see the Grand Tour where May tried to get from London to Dartmoor in an electric car? Most of the charge points at the service stations weren't working.
If you are a two car family with another car that you can use for long journeys then an electric car makes sense as a second car for commuting. At the moment it's not practical as your main vehicle.
In the short term petrol or petrol hybrid is less bad than diesel.
I still use the bus/train quite often if I have to go into town.
I thought some particulates from diesel were now crossing the blood barrier?
this is the issue with selective citing of academic papers.
so the study that has caused the downgrade to carcinogenic was based on miners using plant. The plant equipment is used in a confined space, on equipment that is less efficient and less environmentally safe than cars that have to meet stringent EU regs.
Not only that, these same plant engines do not use High Pressure rail injection as seen in cars, so they burn more fuel, less efficiently as as a consequence produce more carbon PM10s and PM2.5s........
I'm not saying diesel is perfect, far from it, but the two scenarios are not the same and im certain if petrol was used underground wed see a similar downgrading....
We've only had our Civic diesel less than 15 months are they are desperate to get us into a new Petrol one.
So diesels are bad (M'kay) now, eh? That's like saying eat this cat shit because this dog shit is bad for you. Yes *some* reports say that the majority of the polutants found can be traced back to diesel emmissions right now... could that be because diesel cars, vans, trucks, buses, taxis etc are in the majority (or at least there are a shit load more of them) thanks to the incentives of a few years ago? Those cancer-causing particulates have always been there - but there's just a lot more of them now.
I'm not sure what to believe any more - there have been scientific studies that support Petrol engines being 'worse' and now there are ones saying similar about diesels. Each time these things are reported, the average motorist ends up out of pocket - without any workable alternatives.
Is it just a money-making scheme? Is just a ruse to sell new cars?
I don't know... but you can bet someone is making a killing out of it.
I also read today that Islington is charging £96 per year more for parking permits on diesels in the new financial year. There are 215,000 people living in Islington. In that part of London a lot will not have their own cars, but it's safe to say that there are several thousand residents who currently have diesels who will not be buying diesel next time. I know other London boroughs are charging more for diesels, if not as much as Islington. Some of those are in outer London like Merton where large numbers of people do own cars. Across London as a whole there will be hundreds of thousands of drivers who currently own diesels who will be looking at something else next time.
It's also highly likely that diesels will not be able to be registered as minicabs going forwards. New Black Cabs will not be diesel from Jan 2018. I can't imagine TFL allowing diesel minicabs while not allowing diesel Black Cabs. If 100,000 London minicab drivers aren't buying 3 year old diesels then that's another chunk of the market for second hand diesels gone.
Like it or not, London is big enough to affect prices country wide. Also you need to bear in mind the other things I mentioned. London is not the only city bringing in emissions controls. The biggest effect on resale will be the other thing I mentioned - the change to the price of road tax for cars registered after April. I can't see anything but a drop in demand for second hand diesels, and a drop in resale value as a result. You have to factor that in.
The big (although highly unlikely risk) is that current diesels that do not meet the Euro 6 requirements that they claim to meet will be penalised once real world Euro 6 tests are in place (currently scheduled for 2019 unless the car makers can weasel out of it again). What happens if the government insists on product recalls to get the ones on sale now modified to meet the Euro 6 standard, or charges an extra pollution levy on them? I don't think it's likely that the government will do that, but you can't completely rule out some kind of government action.
But paranoia aside, I suspect it was more to do with bad scientific advice - or ignorant implementation of it - and wanting to appear 'green', encouraged by car manufacturers and their lobbyists who wanted to sell a new generation of cars, when the market is no longer growing. And now the car makers will get another bite at the cake when they need to sell a different new generation.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I could easily be convinced that hydrogen is the long-term future, but I think it's a way off, and I'm a big fan of electric cars as an interim solution (and I say that as someone whose last car was a 4L V8, albeit one I only did 2000 miles a year in).