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A comment on Gasoline direct injection, etc., makes electric cars irrelevant. Parent comment

Re:Gasoline direct injection, etc., makes electric cars irre... by AndrewDucker on Friday January 30, 2009 @09:44AM (#458117)
At this point, history. The diesel "brand" was badly hurt by the early versions.

And there is still a price premium for the engines, so that point stands. They just aren't inefficient or terribly polluting any more.

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Re:Gasoline direct injection, etc., makes electric cars irre... by gravitycop on Friday January 30, 2009 @09:54AM (#458129)
At this point, history [is holding the diesel back in the American market]. The diesel "brand" was badly hurt by the early versions.

You said that none of those diesel-drawbacks I listed have been true for some time. If that were the case, it might seem that the public is taking its time coming around. here is a recent forecast for diesel market share in the U.S.: http://news.google.com/news?q=%22diesel+market+share%22

Automotive industry analysts at JD Power have forecast that diesel market share in the US will quadruple to 9 percent by 2015

Only 9% market share by 2015? And the technology has no drawbacks in comparison to gasoline?

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Re:Gasoline direct injection, etc., makes electric cars irre... by pingswept on Friday January 30, 2009 @10:01AM (#458138)
That's a pretty weak argument. Anyone can make a market share prediction, and our track record at this kind of prediction sucks.

And in any case, market share quadrupling between now and 2015 in an automotive market is rapid adoption.

How about a counter-argument based on the lack of availability of diesel pumps? Seriously, that's the worst thing about owning a diesel car-- trying to find a gas station that pumps diesel.

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Re:Gasoline direct injection, etc., makes electric cars irre... by HeyLaughingBoy on Friday January 30, 2009 @05:56PM (#458871)
??? Where do you live? Around here pretty much every gas station has multiple diesel pumps.

Then again, I do live out in the country...

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Re:Gasoline direct injection, etc., makes electric cars irre... by pingswept on Friday January 30, 2009 @10:22PM (#459174)
Yeah, that's exactly the problem. I live in Boston, where the vast majority of drivers are commuters, and nobody even knows what a generator looks like.

My best search algorithm is to locate the nearest freeway exit, then find the nearest gas station.

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