Remember how many senior managers from automakers went to jail for the rigging of diesel car emissions during regulatory tests and which is estimated to have caused and still cause tens of thousands of additionl deaths in Europe due to the additional polution?
That would be that magical number that when multiplied by any other number yields itself as result: zero.
If per the actual actions of these politicians (not their words, talk is cheap and their words are often unrelated to their actions) even the lifes of europeans are less important than the continued prosperity of those “oh so important” top managers in the auto industry, you can hardly expect they would treat Climate as anywhere as important as the profitability of the auto industry.
Nothing to see here, just the EU doing what its constituency told them to do.
I feel that, at some point, the emissions standards get so restrictive, that it makes them impossible to practically meet. Making it a ban in all but name. I’m not familiar enough, with the original proposal for Euro7. But it seems like it might be at that threshold. The European Union needs to make up their mind, whether or not they want to allow combustion vehicles at all…
They did. Starting 2035, ICEs won’t be sold anymore in EU.
Honestly; instead of trying to tighten emissions restrictions (perhaps beyond feasible levels?), the EU should have just moved this date closer…
Edit: I just realized: I wonder how the ban affects all the talk about synthetic and bio-fuels? Those are still based on internal combustion. Then again; although ideally CO2-neutral, they still emit NOx and particulate.
Edit: I just realized: I wonder how the ban affects all the talk about synthetic and bio-fuels? Those are still based on internal combustion. Then again; although ideally CO2-neutral, they still emit NOx and particulate.
I run 100% biodiesel in a 1998 VW. IMO its a super-underrated solution, especially for folks who often need to drive long distances.
We shouldn’t try to use it for 1:1 replacement of all current gasoline vehicles while changing nothing else, since it’d be a bad idea to devote that much farmland to growing fuel. What we should do, however, is transition the vast majority of driving to bicycles and rail, then use biodiesel for the niche cases left over.
Feel like a lot of these niche cases is logistics where the power is needed and no real viable alternative exists. Trucks, ships, and aeroplanes.
There are alternatives to diesel trucks, but from what I’ve heard they’re rubbish. Gas doesn’t perform that well, and is somewhat of a bitch to fuel, availability being an issue. They also don’t have as much range.
Electric isn’t even really a consideration since trucks just don’t have that much downtime, at least not the way it looks here. A standing truck is one that costs money, so the trucks run almost 24/7. Changing from spending 15-20 minutes fuelling once per day to 30-60 minutes fuelling 4-6 times per day just isn’t feasible.
We could try and force it, obviously. Have ships build sails again, add extra taxes on aeroplanes, and whatnot. When transport costs more, transporting will cost more, meaning anything that gets transported will cost more. The end result will be that everything will get that much more expensive.
There are alternatives to diesel trucks, but from what I’ve heard they’re rubbish.
On the contrary: freight trains are great! We just need to install pantograph wires on the tracks.
Have ships build sails again
I was gonna mention that if you didn’t. 'Course, nowadays it’s more about computer-contolled kite sails than traditional one hung off masts.
Trucks
Trucks. Trucks… Really? Freight train -> freight tram -> forklift.
ships
Nuclear submarinesThe end result will be that everything will get that much more expensive.
Capitalism.
Trucks. Trucks… Really? Freight train -> freight tram -> forklift.
This, already happens. You know that, right? I mean sure you might live in the US where people don’t believe in safe schools, access to healthcare, or public transport, but in my country this is already a thing. Yet we still have some of the largest trucks in the entire world.
Why? Because while trains are great at transporting goods to larger hubs, and if a company, say Siemens or SSAB uses a lot of good they might construct their own hubs, smaller companies and individuals (like farmers) don’t generally make the kind of money to buy their own forklifts, nevermind build their own train/tram tracks.
So the only option that remains on the table that’s the right mix of environmentally friendly and economically viable is to cater to these individuals and companies using gigantic trucks. That is not like to change any time soon no matter how hard we wish that was the case.
Capitalism.
Right. I’d be all for burning the system, executing those at the top, and starting over. While one can dream, that doesn’t seem very feasible.
So how do we explain to everyone that the prices of food tripling is actually a good thing for them?
Actually they went back on it at the start of the year, ICEs are allowed to be sold as long as they run on 100% carbon neutral fuels. The total ICE ban was going to completely shut the door on hydrogen so they changed the wording.
Doesn’t hydrogen use fuel cells anyway? Fuel cells aren’t ICE.
Edit: yep, fuel cells. So this was bullshit edit so automakers can keep selling their ICE.
High pressure hydrogen is a thing too and regular petrol engines can be converted to run on it. Toyota already did it with an old corolla and a rally Yaris https://mag.toyota.co.uk/restomod-ae86/ https://mag.toyota.co.uk/hydrogen-gr-yaris-showcases-experimental-engine/ so not fully shutting the door but still a big hindrance.
ICE with ideal transmission is less efficient, than real fuel cell + PMSM.
