Diesels may be banned from the road soon?? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

PreferVintage · #1 05-04-2019, 11:34 PM

OK, this is scary...I've been coming across more and more articles written by 'helpful people' who are beginning to advocate banning our classic cars from the road. After the VW scandal, the love affair with all things diesel in Europe is beginning to end.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/19540/if-electric-cars-are-the-future-what-about-our-classics
What does everyone think? I'd hate to be forced to 'electrify' my 300D to keep driving it. Older cars are greener because we keep them running. No Tesla Model S will be on the road in 10-15 years...not without all new processing and software and skateboard. In England, the move has started...
"Classic cars to be banned from UK motorways in next three decades"
https://www.autoclassics.com/posts/news/could-classic-cars-be-banned-in-next-30-years
These 'helpful people' seem to have their sights on anything they can take away from others, including our history...

kuene · #2 05-06-2019, 06:32 PM

wouldn't worry about it. these are UK articles from 2018 - nothing new to report. London has long been much more restrictive when it comes to vehicles driving in the city limits.

there will always be exemptions for older cars in the US. might get harder to find fuel in 30 years, but we'll still be cooking with oil. the percentage of total vehicle emissions that comes from 35+ year old private diesel cars operating in the US (versus brand new gassers) is practically zero.

Garagefull · #3 05-06-2019, 06:43 PM

Glad I have my crude oil.. these two wells have been producing for 108 years . Going to be that weird old guy that lives down the road with the old car.lol

PreferVintage · #4 05-06-2019, 08:41 PM

Those are good points...sorry, this post got duplicated...
Trains are diesel and so are trucks, and it will take some time for the trucking industry to switch to electric, and I doubt battery packs will have a long life or range for trucking. An even longer time before, if ever, we see electric trains running on a battery...makes no sense with overhead lines and pantographs etc. And like you said, there will always be the vegetable oil alternative. In my state of Connecticut, cars over 20 years old are exempt from emissions tests...I'm just hoping a test isn't applied retroactively if a group of 'helpful people' complain about an old MB puffing some soot...which I would prefer as opposed to oxides of sulfur from a catalytic anyway, but probably good reason to make sure our injectors are always up to snuff....

Clemson88 · #5 05-07-2019, 11:22 AM

They will never kill petro and nuclear. Maybe they'll get one or the other in the next 100 years but if they try and kill diesel they will desperately need nuclear power to generate enough electricity to meet the enormous electrical demands.

jay_bob · #6 05-07-2019, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clemson88

They will never kill petro and nuclear. Maybe they'll get one or the other in the next 100 years but if they try and kill diesel they will desperately need nuclear power to generate enough electricity to meet the enormous electrical demands.

Most fossil fueled electricity in the US is now either coal or natural gas. Diesel not used except for on site backup generators, or some of the smaller island nations. Not sure what Hawaii does for electricity.

Every nuke plant has massive diesel generators to keep the critical cooling pumps running in case the grid goes down.

In Fukushima they screwed up and put the generators and the critical cooling pump switchgear below the expected water level for a predicted tsunami. When the tsunami hit, the switchgear and generators flooded, so that is why the plant failed.

1983/300CD · #7 05-08-2019, 12:15 PM

Here's the plan: We make biodiesel from cocolithophores. Minus the shells, we will have a carbon-negative fuel, creating a need for diesel engines in order to save the planet. Simple.
One billion dollars, please.

Squiggle Dog · #8 05-08-2019, 02:51 PM

Yeah, maybe instead of banning diesels we work on making large-scale biodiesel production viable. Use up all the agricultural wastes, grow it from algae and plankton, recycle carbon-based materials like plastics... There must be a solution but politics and corporate greed always seem to get in the way.

I'd use biodiesel every time if I could get it. There's only one place in the valley that sells it in any concentration above 5% and it's about an hour away. My car sure does run better on it (higher lubricity and cetane) and it's nice knowing that when I use it I'm burning a clean, renewable fuel.

tjts1 · #9 05-08-2019, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squiggle Dog

Yeah, maybe instead of banning diesels we work on making large-scale biodiesel production viable. Use up all the agricultural wastes, grow it from algae and plankton, recycle carbon-based materials like plastics... There must be a solution but politics and corporate greed always seem to get in the way.

I'd use biodiesel every time if I could get it. There's only one place in the valley that sells it in any concentration above 5% and it's about an hour away. My car sure does run better on it (higher lubricity and cetane) and it's nice knowing that when I use it I'm burning a clean, renewable fuel.

I hate to break it to you but even if you used up all the agricultural land in the world for biodiesel pruduction it would hardly make a dent in our total fossil fuel consumption. Biodiesel, renewable diesel, ethanol etc are a dead end for the mass market. I've been running 2 diesel cars on renewable diesel for the past 4 years exclusively. Its great from the user perspective. High cetane, unlimited shelf life (unlike biodiesel), no deposits, no algae, no smoke, no smell But you'll never be able to produce enough to displace conventional diesel. Certainly not at a competitive price. Theres a reason this stuff hasn't been able to expand beyond California and a few nordic markets.

1983/300CD · #10 05-10-2019, 09:21 PM

Bah. Have you seen the cliffs of southern England? There's huge potential in the concept.

jbach36 · #11 05-11-2019, 12:27 AM

They could only ban diesels in the future. Ours are grandfathered in.

tjts1 · #12 05-11-2019, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbach36

They could only ban diesels in the future. Ours are grandfathered in.

I like your idealism

Zulfiqar · #13 05-11-2019, 06:18 PM

Mazda are entering the diesel market with a CX5 diesel variant. I dont think its that easy to kick out diesel engines from US roads.

tjts1 · #14 05-11-2019, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zulfiqar

Mazda are entering the diesel market with a CX5 diesel variant. I dont think its that easy to kick out diesel engines from US roads.

The CX5 diesel is completely pointless.

Quote:

In EPA fuel economy, the 2019 Mazda CX-5 diesel gets an estimated 27 mpg city/30 mpg highway and 28 mpg overall. The standard CX-5, whose gasoline engine has fuel-saving cylinder deactivation, is 1 mpg better than the CX-5 diesel on the highway (31 mpg).

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/mazda-cx-5-diesel/2100006704/

Stretch · #15 05-12-2019, 05:23 AM

"They" will do exactly what ever "they" want.

If they want to ban diesels from the road - of any age - that's exactly what they will do. Europe is different from the US of A as a whole but it isn't that different from California where attitudes towards pollution and the causes of pollution are not too dissimilar. In Europe the use of diesels is getting to be more and more anti-social.

The days of the internal combustion engine are limited. Look at the Tesla model 3 - sure it is yet another electric car that's not quite as convenient as one powered by an internal combustion engine (at the moment) but it is a pretty impressive vehicle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSRWKxytW40

It isn't even mega mega silly heavy with "all of those batteries"

Disregarding the potential point of use pollution advantages - electric motors are just better - batteries are getting better and better (even though it isn't 100% clear to me at least if they are actually producing less pollution).

From a "petrol head" perspective:- At this rate you're not going to want diesel engines or any other internal combustion engine

The next big thing on this forum is probably going to be electric conversions for our nice old characterful jalopies...