Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Diesel vs Petrol Vehicles

Last year apparently 40% of new cars in Britain were diesel models - up 8% on 2006. The main reason seems to be that they are cheaper to run and they have lower carbon dioxide emissions than petrol cars. They are still cheaper to run despite diesel being more expensive than petrol here in the UK. Of course that's down to Brown taxing diesel more than petrol.

All this means that the government is collecting a whole lot more in taxes from us. Interestingly diesel in France is about 23% cheaper than the U.K

3 comments:

r morris said...

Diesel costs more than regular gas here in the Western US.
It also gels up in the winter and so is practically useless in cold climates unless car is kept garaged or has a block heater (both expensive).
Main advantage--more power.

As an aside, I read that it costs a passenger $88 to fly from Lewistown to Billings, Montana. However, the government subsidy for that ticket is something like $1,500. The plane flies the route every day with a grand total of two passengers.

Roger Thomas said...

I think in the UK theynow put additives to stop it gelling. used to just put a bit of petrol in the tank.

The whole diesel v petrol thing is something I need to research. Diesel is denser than petrol by 20-25%. Therefore if you calculated running efficiency and bought fuel by the Kg. Diesel would do less miles per Kg than petrol.

I did notice when I was checking on carbon offsetting sites, on some you paid more to offset 1000 miles of travel in a diesel car than petrol of same cc.

I did start working it out at someones house. All moles, avogadros numbers etc, then realised I was an alien to everyone else there. Seems like a technical education is now not the norm.

As it is denser you get more carbon bonds per gallon. So really in terms of tax per energy it is corret to tax diesel at a higher rate pergallon.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the other greenhouse gasses released as emissions from diesel!
Everyone does and people are finding that petrol and hybrids out do the diesel.
1 example:
http://www.ecotravel.org.uk/fuels_5.html