Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
!!! Well, what's the answer?
Why _not_ use a diesel in the Prius?
Because it was engineered 10 years ago at a cost of $1 billion, and
you cannot simply throw in a new kind of engine without a complete
redesign, and large changes to the factory floor. They need to make
back the money on the investment.
Also, I doubt they could make a diesel with such low levels of pollution.
I think an improvement to the battery would be much easier to
implement than a new type of internal combustion engine, and I think
it would have a larger impact on overall efficiency. I say this
because they have already substantially improved the battery, in the
revised model introduced last year. I expect they will continue to
make incremental improvements and tweaks. A diesel engine would be a
gigantic change, not a tweak. Implementing a plug-in version would
also be a smaller change than a diesel, and it would have a much
larger impact on efficiency and pollution.
- Jed
