From the Crow’s Nest:
Bosch to lead the Save our Diesel campaign.

Are diesel cars really the villains they are made out to be?

With the demonisation of diesel continuing apace, what started in 2015 as a self-inflicted debacle for Volkswagen, opened the door for politicians on all sides to declare diesel cars public enemy number one.

That leaves Bosch to lead the Save our Diesel campaign. This huge, cash-rich firm has cachet and credibility, and isn’t afraid to talk about its continued belief in diesel, plus its valid concerns about pure-electric cars in the real world. It also claims it has the know-how to reduce diesels’ NOx emissions.

A breakthrough in the management of diesel emissions has been announced in April 2018 by Bosch – enabling diesel cars to undercut future limits for nitrogen oxide (NOx) by almost 90 percent.

Announcing the breakthrough at the company’s annual press conference, Bosch’s chief executive, Dr Volkmar Denner, said: “There’s a future for diesel. Today, we want to put a stop, once and for all, to the debate about the demise of diesel technology.” Denner said the company was “pushing the boundaries of what is technically feasible.”

While the car Bosch used to develop its new system was a VW Golf, the changes to its engine were so significant the company refers to the car as a ‘platform demonstrator’. Bosch’s head of powertrains, Dr Rolf Bulander, told Auto Express: “We completely refurbished this engine because we wanted to have a motor that is not linked to a brand. This is not a VW motor, this is a generic motor.”

Cars must currently emit no more than 168mg/km (milligrams per kilometer) of NOx and, in 2020, that limit will reduce to 120mg/km in real-world driving tests, and 80mg/km in lab assessments. But new technology developed by Bosch allows a diesel VW Golf to emit just 13mg/km of NOx in mixed driving conditions, measured using the latest RDE paradigms.

Journalists were given the opportunity to drive around Stuttgart in cars equipped with the new system. The results captured from these demonstrations echoed Bosch's own tests, despite the cars being driven in congested city center traffic.

Denner said electric cars had a fundamental role to play in future transport, but “until electro mobility breaks through to the mass market, we will still need these highly efficient combustion engines”.

He added: "It’s better to drive the right diesel vehicle than the wrong electric car."

April 2018 Sales in a nutshell

We share the best used car sellers (only IDA dealers on the Signio platform)
VOLKSWAGEN
FORD
TOYOTA
BMW
HYUNDAI

The top three used commercial vehicle sales per manufacturer (bakkies)
RANGER 2.2TDCi XL P/U D/C
NP200 1.6 A/C P/U S/C
UTILITY 1.4 A/C P/U S/C

Top 10 derivatives used car sales
POLO GP 1.2 TSI TRENDLINE (66KW)
POLO GP 1.2 TSI COMFORTLINE (66KW)
POLO 1.4 COMFORTLINE 5DR
POLO VIVO GP 1.4 TRENDLINE 5DR
POLO VIVO GP 1.4 CONCEPTLINE 5DR
FIGO 1.4 AMBIENTE
COROLLA QUEST 1.6
COROLLA 1.6 PROFESSIONAL
FORTUNER 3.0D-4D R/B
POLO VIVO 1.4 TRENDLINE 5Dr

The average age of used vehicles sold in April 2018 was 4.36 years.

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