Guest essay by Larry Hamlin
The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article further exposing the climate alarmist political idiocy behind Germany’s growing dieselgate scandal where diesel engine powered vehicles were falsely portrayed and promoted as environmentally superior to combustion engine powered vehicles.
As the WSJ article noted:
“Switching to diesel from gasoline, the monumental regulatory effort launched by the European Union in the late 1990s, ended up delivering only thimbles-full of avoided greenhouse pollution compared to competing gasoline engines. But it made the air in European cities significantly less breathable thanks to diesel particulates and nitrogen oxides.
Yet there has been no inclination to question the cost-benefit basis of the anti-carbon crusade. Instead, Europe is doubling down by forcing car makers to build electric cars, while Der Spiegel is trying to shift the blame for the diesel experiment’s failure to alleged anticompetitive actions by German car makers.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was busy trying to distance herself from her role in creating this debacle by claiming that the car industry threw away “incredible public trust” and that it was their job to “win it back” thereby pretending that these problems that were entirely manufactured by German climate alarmist politicians belong solely to industry.
The WSJ article exposes how the German press have disguised and obfuscated the fact that politically mandated commitments to meaningless CO2 emissions reductions have driven the industry’s great green disaster.
“The prominent German magazine Der Spiegel has spent much of the summer hoarsely condemning VW, BMW , Audi , Mercedes and Porsche.
First it accused them of running an illegal cartel because they cooperated in meeting certain technical obligations related to Europe’s mandated insistence on diesel vehicles. In installment two, the magazine accused them of besmirching the reputation of “Made in Germany” in the eyes of the world.
Never mind that such besmirching is hardly obvious from record global sales lately of BMW and Mercedes cars.
Also missing from the magazine’s 9,000-word diatribe is a recognition that Germany’s dieselgate and associated scandals arise entirely from European politicians’ politically-correct pursuit of meaningless reductions in CO2.”
“Once politicians and regulators decided to make diesel the star of their fake climate show, they turned to providing loopholes to ensure their cars remained marketable.
VW’s behavior (as uncovered by U.S. regulators) was egregious, programming its engine software to draw on the AdBlue tank only when its car was on a test-bed for regulators seeking to confirm (wink, wink) that its emissions were OK.
Except it has now become clear that other car makers engaged in similar cheating, including some that could not be part of any German cartel because they weren’t German.”
“All this, we repeat, so Europe’s politicians could pretend to be doing something about global warming.”
The WSJ article suggests that this entire climate alarmist driven political diesel swindle will simply be swept under the rug to promote yet more politically driven escapades pushing EVs as the answer to making further car industry meaningless CO2 emissions reductions in support of climate alarmism idiocy.
“Now comes a new chapter. How will the public-relations damage be apportioned between carmakers and the political class over a grotesque boondoggle? Don’t be surprised when this scandal is swept imperceptibly toward the memory hole once Ms. Merkel has been safely returned to office, as every poll suggest she will.”
“Why? Because, from Berlin to Beijing to Sacramento, Calif., governments are already engaged in a new and even more implausible magic act: How to preserve their car industries and jobs while simultaneously mandating that car makers produce electric vehicles that can only be sold to the public at a steep loss in a world where oil is $50 a barrel and gasoline engines continue to make impressive efficiency gains.”
“In short, a car wreck is coming that will make dieselgate look like a fender bender.”
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Well I drive diesel-powered Mercedes, and it will require more than just a “gate” to switch back to Benzin.
Once you have driven diesel, you will appreciate its advantages.
Very low consumption and strong power simultaneously. Benzin cars are weak and just cannot compete on a freeway.
One drawback to diesel is that in very cold environments the engine needs a lot of warm-up of glow-plugs time, and lots of battery power to do that.
In ultra cold environments if you don’t have a heated garage you leave the engine on and wrap it up in insulation including transmission and axles.
I recall watching the drivers light a fire under the sump of their trucks just to liquefy the sump oil and ensure the diesel could flow in Russia – and also heat the rest of the engine. For gasoline engines, it was common to bring spark plugs indoors and toast them in a gas flame on the stove before trying to start the engine.
It is usual to add kerosene to diesel in cold weather to improve its flow and cold start properties. The disadvantage is that it reduces cetane, so engines become rough when revved.
It is fake science and fake engineering (ignoring all the real engineering problems and cost issues) all the way down or up.
Does any one remember the Scientific American articles on the hydrogen revolution? Cars powered by hydrogen?
Switching to EV vehicles will not reduce CO2 emission in Germany, Germany has reached the absolute limit of how much wind and solar energy can be handled by their electric grid without storage.
Energy storage more than doubles the cost. There is no energy storage system that is scalable. Roughly 30% of the energy generated is lost in energy storage systems in conversion losses and battery loses. The battery systems efficiency degrades with time. The batteries have a lifetime of 7 to 10 years.
Germany has reach the hard engineering limit of wind and solar. Germany has installed wind and solar that is 100% of base German power load for the peak nameplate rating of the wind and solar installation.
The problem is German wind and solar installation runs at less than 20% average of the nameplate solar and wind maximum.
German wind and solar total power output varies from 100% of grid output to close to zero. Germany has 100% natural gas/coal back-up to supply the 80% of power when the wind does not blow and the sun is not shining.
Germany needs nuclear power to reduce CO2 emissions further however the only thing the Germans hate more than CO2 is nuclear power.
German CO2 ‘savings’ do not include the energy input required to build, install, maintain, and replace wind and solar systems and does not include the energy loss to use single cycle natural gas turbines that can be turned on/off/on/off/on/off as compared to the 20% more efficient combined cycle (produce steam from the waste heat from the first pass turbines) natural gas power plants that take 10 hours to start and hence cannot be turned on/off/on/off/on/off multiple times per day in respond to changes in wind speed.
Germany Energiewend Leading To Suicide By Cannibalism. Huge Oversupply Risks Destabilization
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/02/08/weekly-climate-and-energy-news-roundup-167/
http://notrickszone.com/2015/02/04/germanys-energiewende-leading-to-suicide-by-cannibalism-huge-oversupply-risks-destabilization/#sthash.8tE9YRDj.PSllYaQF.dpbs
good overview
Yepp. And the plan is to quadruple the capacity of renewables. The rationale behind it: If a remedy doesn’t work, just double it. If it still doesn’t work, double it again. If the patient dies look for the next one.
To address Peta’s point, diesel engines can run on vegetable oil, but not for very long. Vegetable oil is much more viscous than diesel fuel and gets into the lubricant causing damage to the engine in the long term. Also, the unsaturates in VO contribute to a 10% increase in NOx emissions that the biodiesel board wants you to ignore. California requires a cetane improver be used with biodiesel blends to overcome the NOx detriment but that is only partly effective and costly. They require Ditertiery butyl peroxide as the additive.
On another note, diesel exhaust catalysts are extremely effective at reducing PM and NOx emissions from diesel engines. New exhaust systems remain so clean that there is no buildup of black on the exhaust tip. Just look at your local transit bus that has a Cat/Trap system. But there is a 5 to 10% price in terms of fuel efficiency to meet the extremely low emissions targets for new diesel engines. This fight between emissions and efficiency is at the heart of the diesel exhaust emissions scandal. In Europe, NOx emissions limits were about 25% higher which resulted in small diesel vehicles achieving >50 MPG easily with some hitting 70 in real life. This cannot be done in the US as the NOx limits are tighter and the cars are heavier.
Gasoline engines are also hit by this tradeoff between emissions and FE. We reduced exhaust emissions by 99% from the 1970 emissions standards due mainly to fuel injection and catalytic converters. But the eternal drive of regulators to further reduce emissions with no measured benefit to society has cost us 10 to 20% reduction in FE from what it could be if we left emissions at the 1990’s levels. There is no measureable improvement in Los Angeles air quality since 2000 when they reached 11 days of ozone non-attainment compared to 180 in 1970. One has to remember that 50% of the hydrocarbon emissions in the LA basin in 1970 were from plant life and there is nothing that can or should be done about this source of photochemical smog. It simply exists and the residents have to live with it.
Ademola Adesina is the son of former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) National Secretary, Pastor Dele Adesina (SAN).
Demola, got an LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the University of Reading, United Kingdom in 2008 and was
called to the Nigerian Bar in 2009. He obtained his LL.M in Computer and Telecommunications Law at Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom in 2012.
He shares his law experience with ROBERT EGBE and MARIAM SALAMI
When Demola Adesina graduated with an LL.B degree from the University of Reading, England in 2008, returning home immediately was the last
thing on his mind.
He teased his ‘poor’ mates who, after their graduation hurried
off to catch flights back home for the one-year Nigerian Law School programme which starting the
following week.
Little did he know that his father, Pastor Dele Adesina (SAN) had a trick or two up his sleeves to bring his son home.
“It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to go to Law School,” he said.
“I just wanted to relax a bit in London after my graduation. Maybe chill out for a few months before returning home.
But, he laughs, his eyes sparkling as he recalls what happened, “My dad had other ideas.
He recruited a friend of his and before I knew it, I was on a
plane back home.”
Demola declined to go into details though, with a smile. He didn’t feel like talking about It. But he did explain that law was the only thing he thought of doing.
“I never really thought about any other profession apart from law,” he said, “It was what I saw around me, what I had seen my father do while
growing up. Everybody wants to be successful and I thought
like the only way I could do that was by law practice.
I don’t see myself and have never seen myself doing anything apart from law.”
Although his parents never imposed any profession on him, there were subtle influences from his dad very early in his childhood.
“I started going to court with my dad right from primary
school through secondary school up till before I entered university,” Demola said. “He used to take me to Nigeria Bar Association events, once in a while too.
When I was really young, I didn’t really know a lot of
what was going on in court at that time. It was like watching a law movie or TV
show.”
However, for all the times he and his dad were in court together, he was never present whenever the senior lawyer won or lost a case.
Interestingly too, his dad, Demola noted, doesn’t have any particularly special way of celebrating a legal victory.
“Obviously, he would be mention happy about it, but it is not like there is a special event or he would go out and buy this and that.
That’s not the way we practise law. We practise law the way it should be,
” he said.
Last year, the judicial dynasty of the Adesina family reached another milestone when Demola married Tope, the daughter of a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) in a grand wedding at the Landmark Events Centre in Lagos.
Explaining how they met, Demola said it just happened. “There was no matchmaking by any member of either family.” Married life, he added, has been “great”.
As to whether he would fancy any of his kids choosing a career in law, Demola said they would be free to choose their path in life.
“You can’t force somebody to what they don’t want to do.
The best you can do is kind of make it attractive to them.
If they choose to do something else, my job as
a father is to support them,” he said.
After considering all career options and family advice,
Ademola chose to be a government climate scientist, administering temperature data.
Nigeria is the world’s capital of corruption.
It was a marriage made in heaven.
Mercedes all new electric car /sarc
Ooops, hope this link works better.
If you want better fuel economy – expressed in litres per 100 km, or miles per gallon, you should use boiler oil in your diesel – it is denser than diesel oil – so there is more mass per unit volume. Only trouble is that it has to be heated in other than tropical climates to enable it to be pumped.
Also I believe, but cannot be certain, that it has no adverse effect on the lube oil – certain ships have been using it in their diesel engines for donkeys years without adverse effect.
Improvement – run on an even denser fuel – asphalt. You could mine it on many roads.
dudleyhorscroft,
Many ship’s motors already run on asphalt… With high compression (40-45:1) you can burn heavy fuel, that is the remainder of the refinaries after distilling off allmost all directly usable products, from gases to greases. The residue – if not catalytically cracked further – is used either as asphalt or heavy fuel, also depending of the different oil origins. One need to heat it up to 110ºC to make it sufficiently liquid for pumping and injection in the motor.
Advantage: cheapest fuel available.
Drawback: very high sulphur content (~2%!), high particulate due to incomplete burning of large molecules.
In the approach of ports, one must switch to light fuel, somewhat heavier than standard diesel oil, to maintain low viscosity without heating and low sulphur / particulate in the exhaust.
Thanks, that’s new to me.
In the US, an efficient gasoline dispenser dispenses 9 us gallons per minute.
Since most dispensers are not as well maintained as they might be, assume
5 gallons per minute, My full sized pickup gets ~ 24 mpg @ur momisugly 70 mph.
I usually refuel my 26 gal. tank when I require about 20 gals. 4 minutes =
480 miles range. My stops at the refueling stations average 10 minutes, the
amount of time I usually occupy a fueling stop.
A Tesla under what are probably optimum conditions (warm weather, etc.)
claims 300 mi. With an 80% charge claimed to be 15 min., which equals
240 miles range. If the recharging stop is very efficient, the Tesla will require
20 min at a fueling stop.
Twice the time to refuel for 1/2 the miles = 4 times the fueling stops.
Imagine making the US refueling stations 4x their present size, and then
try to imagine that in Europe.
My friends:
If you’re interested in diesel and the issues it causes, and you haven’t already read my own contribution on this very website, please take a look at it.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/08/11/the-social-costs-of-air-pollution-from-cars-in-the-uk/
Unintended consequences caused by Environmentalists’ knee jerk “shoot, ready, aim” approach to perceived problems once again bite everyone in the butt. When will people learn it’s their ideology they want to protect instead of humans.
This economic comparison EV:ICE doesn’t include using natural gas in ICE. I saw a paper on truck transport using NG a few years ago.
I know the WSJ hasn’t been a sounding board for alarmism but, wow, the contemptuous language:
“Once politicians and regulators decided to make diesel the star of their fake climate show…”
is definitely a quantum jump in boldness even for WSJ. I’ve been commenting on articles on WUWT lately with the lead of ‘now that CAGW has been cancelled by Donald Trump…” but to see any MSM slам the carbon sсам кгам with the descriptor “fake climate show” I feel like I have to up my game!
“This economic comparison EV:ICE doesn’t include using natural gas in ICE. I saw a paper on truck transport using NG a few years ago.”
That was the road not taken (unfortuneately) by the electrify-everything purists in the Obama administration.
Here in Bishkek there are lots of dump trucks that run on natural gas. They have 7 long tanks mounted transversely on the frame behind the cab, under the box.
I’d just say the diesel makers took the testing regime in the manner of a NASCAR team. Like the story of the team that, in response to a mandated specific fuel tank capacity, added 50 feet of fuel line spooled between the tank and the engine.
The VW programming scam wasn’t DEF based, it was injection timing retarding during stationary dyno testing. This reduced NOx emissions at the expense of fuel economy and power. These vehicles didn’t need SCR to meet NOx and as such, no need for DEF (AdBlue is a Daimler trademark for their 32% aqueous urea solution for SCR regeneration).
“Much Ado About Nothing”. The age adjusted death rate (per 1000 people) for lung cancer is 35 in USA, and 28 in Germany, for lung disease 15 in Germany and 30 in USA. Life expectancy at birth Germany 81.4, USA 79.3. (http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com). In Germany life expectancy in large cities is larger than in rural regions.
Please note that the very same people who try to demonize CO2 are behind this Diesel scandal meme. These are the extreme enironmentalists in cooperation with the EU bureaucrats. First they want to kill the diesel with its NOx emissions then the remaining petrol cars will run into the CO2 regulation trap. After that only electric vehicles will be allowed whereas nearly nothing will be saved in terms of environment since the EU is scaling down nuclear power and the intermittency of the renewables already causes problems with the european grid.
I had a look into the NOx issue and it is even more laughable than the CO2 fear mongering. There is no danger for our health from it. Currently we have an average concentration of about 20 µg/m³ in Germany. Next to some roads with the highest traffic burden we have about 80-90 µg/m³. The official limit before 2010 was 200 µg/m³ and since 2010 it is 40 µg/m³ which comes from the WHO and which is based on some statistical reports where a few of them found a correlation between higher mortality and NOx exposure other reports did not find any relation at all. Although there is no proof they are definig that with every 10 µg/m³ 5,5% more people are going to die earlier. Who and How much ealier? Nobody knows.
Anyways, there is no toxicological indication that low NOx concentrations are causing health problems. The toxicological limit where a body reaction is slightly measurable is 2.900 µg/m³. The maximum concentration for working places is 950 µg/m³ !!! Yes, that is no fake. You are allowed to work 8 hrs/day under 950 µg NOx but if you cross a road with 41 µg your health will immediately suffer and you are going to die. Another example: If you are a smoker you are exposed to 240,000 µg/m³. I agree, smoking is not good for health, but according to the NOx narrative you should die immediately after your first and last cigarette. All the epidemiology studies about mortality and NOx I have read are completely ridiculous with no proof whatsoever. But the WHO, the EU and the environmentalists in the governments and the NGOs are creating a threat out of nothing. Does that sound familiar to you?
You should also note that most of the european carmakers did not violate the EU regulation concerning NOx because this regulation is by far not as hard as the EPA regulation in the US and most of the cars did not have that obvious cheating device that Volkswagen needed for “meeting” the harder US regulation. The legal situation, if you violate the regulation, is also very different between US and EU. Thus, Volkswagen definitely had a problem in the US and they had to pay for it. But the EU politicians and the environmental groups were pissed because they cannot sue and punish the carmakers in Europe.
That is one of the reasons why they created the bully parade of collusion between the carmakers. The allegations are as ridiculous as the NOx and anything else that’s coming from the corrupt politics. The magazine “Spiegel” is writing about the Diesel swindle as part of the talks but mentions only ridiculous reasons, e.g. the carmakers saved about 1 Euro/car by using smaller Urea tanks which are supposed to be the reason why they are not doing better in tems of NOx reduction. Ridiculous! And Spiegel mentions the allegation that they agreed upon a maximum driving speed of 20 km/h for allowing the roof of a convertible to close/open for safety reasons. That is according to the magazine supposed to pretend competition which would have potentially caused higher speeds. I am happy with the 20 km/h rather than seeing a convertible fly into my windscreen because it opened the roof at 250 km/h.
No, there is no Diesel swindle, except in the minds of corrupt politics, environmental extremists and the BS media! I understand if you don’t like Diesels but there is no reason at all to ban them.
All this crap starts here. Oge, EPA, Client Earth, etc. All funded by eco-nutter captured US philanthropic foundations. Just follow the money.
Yes AJB. I followed the traces in Germany and Europe. I also got some very good links from you about client earth.
My current analysis is: Most of the founding of enviromentalism leads to Soros Open Society, the Hewlett Foundation and the Packard Foundation, all of them sitting together in the board of the ICCT. Soros seems to coordinate the global activities the latter two are just financing the environmental groups worldwide. In terms of Europe: There is no green NGO (and we really have a lot of them) which doesn’t get money from these two foundations.
That was the most interesting thing I learned: The green Europe, financed by US philanthropy organizations. Soros’ activities are harder to follow but they are even more political. He infiltrated political thinktanks close to governments and he even controls a part of the Green Party in Germany. In the US the most prominent receiver of Soros’ gifts is Al Gore.
If you want to stop the environmentalist you need to drain the financial resources.
First, VW Clean Diesel was unique as it was the only diesel engine that did not utilize AdBlu. It was not until the last gen of the 4-cyl diesel that AdBlu was added. That non-use of the AdBlu was the competitive edge for their diesels to sell.
Second – the Clean Diesel was cleaner than gasoline engines in all emission categories except in the production of NOx. A rumor monger would say the NOx levels were designed to never be achievable. The levels needed were in thousandths of a gram per mile, where the VW only under certain driving conditions would exceed that limit (max 40x the limit occasionally) That means a hypothetical .002 ppm standard, the outside would be 0.08 PPM occasionally.
The amusing part of the fix that VW was forced to develop, is that in reducing the NOx levels, the CO@ur momisugly emissions now doubles, but still below the EPA/CARB levels.
VW was fined BILLIONS for having code in their engine management computer (the so-called Defeat device) that detected being on a treadmill. This is by far and away the largest settlement on record.The fact that the EPA test was wholly inadequate, and was only found when UWV performed road tests and noticed anomalies.
VW was mandated in addition to the billions in fines, to spend 2 Billion on electric car infrastructure – from funding electric charge, to subsidies of electric cars, to pushing the electric car agenda.
They were forced to buy back vehicles at near purchase price with dis-alowance for mileage. For those cars that were not bought back (owner’s choice) VW was mandated by Judge Bryer to develop a fix for all generations of the clean diesel that would meet CARB/EPA specs. These “FIX” costs involve both redesigned exhaust system hardware and software mods amounting to thousands of dollars per car to fix. Add to that, the warranty has been extended. Plus each owner would get a minimum of $5K all the way to $10K if they performed the fix.
Mind you, unlike the Toyota recall, Honda thumbing their nose at the NHTSA, or the Takata Airbag Debacle, all of which actually KILLED people, there is no one on record of having been killed due to this emissions cheat, nor does it include nearly as many vehicles. CARB and the EPA are getting back at VW for pulling the proverbial wool over their eye, and being made a laughing stock of the world. It did not help the EPA/CARB positions that it took a third party to find the anomaly.
And don’t forget the big payday for every state, with California getting many times the payout than the next largest amount.
So, what did we get for this horrible violation of the NOx standards? The loss of a truly fun set of vehicles to drive, which also used less fossil fuels. Downsides include an increase in CO2, CO, particulate (yes, the Clean Diesel had less particulate pollution than GAS), and a bunch on money that will be used to clean the air (like the cigarette settlement money went to health care…wink wink, nod nod).
Talk about convenient, with the California state coffers in tatters, here comes billions from overseas to bail them out. And $2 billion to promote electric vehicles.
Sometimes I wish they would have to advertise what they did rather than pay a fine.
Very good analysis!
“Diesel engine powered vehicles were falsely portrayed and promoted as environmentally superior to combustion engine powered vehicles.”
Diesel engine IS a (internal) combustion engine.
The CEO of VW should have been fired but not for the diesel swindle. For not standing up to the politicians and stating that they designed to the test and passed. If the government wanted a different test that was their problem, not that of VW. Lack of spine caused a big loss to shareholders.
As for NOx, remind me again how much of it a lightning bolt makes?
Judging by her actions, it seems to me Merkel is a KGB/Stasi dead ender left behind to wreak havoc on the west in revenge for the (temporary) fall of communism.
Yepp Mike. That’s what she is. But I can assure you: She hasn’t got a clue of what she is doing. I just don’t know whether that makes it better or worse.
Trying to get gasoline engines to be as efficient as diesel has its drawbacks.
Particulates increase with gas direct injection (GDI).
Diesel is only good for one thing. Real trucks have no spark plug
http://r.ddmcdn.com/w_1995/s_f/o_1/cx_0/cy_85/cw_1995/ch_1330/DSC/uploads/2016/01/diesel-brothers_gallery_ep104_07.jpg
Rather than discuss the relative merits of petrol versus diesel internal combustion engines to the nth degree, save some energy for discussions surrounding the unavailability of natural resources to implement the ‘electric cars for all’ dream. Lithium, one of the key ingredients, has seen substantial increases in price recently, which will impact on the cost of these vehicles. Hopefully the higher price will provide for increased reserves. The wild card is cobalt, which is an essential ingredient for the technology, but being a byproduct of the copper industry, may be in such short supply that the ‘dream’ will not be realizable shortly after takeoff.
There are other chemistries of lithium that do no use cobalt such as : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate
Asp – Cobalt is not required. It is used in some cathode formulations but in small quantities. Rare earth magnets are not necessary either. Lithium is not likely to be a resource constraint
Diesel was not falsely portrayed as it genuinely gives more mpg than petrol. The falseness was in having a test for other emissions that was so unrealistic that even a tiny on board computer could tell it was abnormal and an exam so go into exam mode and pass it as well as possible.
The next fake was in the way they authorities gave figures for deaths by the pollution. From these figures the diesel deaths are about 80% of the total number which added to the 60% from passive smoking etc. we soon get up to around 300% of the respiratory deaths from various causes. in short the authorities have faked the figures as usual for the whole environmental and safety lobbies. They have even openly admitted to the idea that they have the duty to oversell as the truth is way too inadequate to promote the cause. in other words they have the right and duty to be criminal in the pursuit of their ideology.
IMHO Germany is, due to 24/7 deep green indoctrination, mad – and I feel deeply embarrassed of being German! As Mrs. Merkel will be re-elected, this madness will go on for at least 4 more years.
Regardless of the stupidity or otherwise of the regulations, VW deliberately cheated and set out to circumvent them. This was a widespread, organised deception, not the action of a rogue engineer. This is intolerable in a civilised society that honours the rule of law. A few heavyweight execs should be in jail for it
You are right, and I will definitely not try to defend “Volkswagen”, especially as my AUDI A8 is also affected by the Diesel-fraud – and now unsaleable. From the chemical point of view problems must arise in a Diesel engine if you try to minimize both CO, soot and NOx. The problem is that Germany is “mainstream media” driven, and more than 70% of the journalists are “green” or “left”. The Diesel-fraud IMHO is eventually the consequence of the CO2-fraud, and the ultimate aim of all these greens is to destroy any individual mobility. Our politicians should – IMHO – be sent to jail. But the Germans will not protest, as, if you protest, the media will finish you. This has, in a certain manner, happened to me – and I feel embarrassed of being native German.
One can have different opinion on Donald Trump, but you American guys have the great advantage that there is more or less a balance between “green” and “conservative” – Germany, however, is “green-mad” and gets more and more socialistic, from month to month.
Thanks Frank. I am from UK. At least we have Nigel Lawson!
I did’nt know that you are from UK.
Fully agree. I feel like being in GDR 2.0 when I read newspapers or watch news on TV.
EV scam will replace diesel scam. Tesla bursts into flames. Crematory on wheels
One my activities for my own company is looking at robotics/drones and sensors. There is a Spanish company called Libelium that deals in Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities. Below is a talk where at one point the presenter talks about the difficulty and cost with measuring PM2.5.
From Sensors to Cloud