On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:22:52 -0400, BAR wrote:

In article , says...

On 8/29/13 5:50 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 14:04:32 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On the same note, I was reading the other day that diesel power may
soon become the engine of choice for a wide range of both passenger
vehicles as well as trucks. The new ones are clean, very fuel
efficient and make more practical sense than any of the electric
hybrids currently available.

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In Europe where fuel is more than twice as expensive as it is here, a
high percentage of the passenger vehicles are diesel power. They are
not performance slugs either like the old Volkswagon and Mercedes
models.



Cummins has announced it will be building a 5.0 liter diesel to be used
in Nissan pickup trucks.

http://cumminsengines.com/cummins-5L-V8-turbo-diesel

Most European cars are running sub 2 liter diesel motors.

===

There are some but that's not what you see on the expressways doing
90+ mph. We had two different diesel rentals in France several years
ago. One was a turbo 5 cylinder Peugot if I remember correctly and
it had very decent power. The other was a VW van that was close to
commercial size. It too had a substantial turbo engine and lots of
pep. We were going through the French, Swiss and Italian Alps with 4
adults and a lot of luggage. It never lacked for power.