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Volkswagen Seeks To Repair Its Image By Focusing On Electric (wired.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The emissions scandal that's plagued Volkswagen over the past month will be tough to recover from. But they're trying. The company announced a number of changes they're making to their line of vehicles. First, they'll be revamping their flagship Phaeton vehicles to be all-electric. (If you live in the U.S. and haven't heard of these, don't be surprised — they aren't marketed there.) Second, they've announced their intention to install top-of-the-line environmental protection systems in their new diesel cars. (In other words, they'll actually do what they're required by law to do, but vehicle prices will jump significantly.) Their press release is difficult to decipher, given the density of buzzwords and vague promises, but they indicate a greater general focus on hybrids and electric vehicles in the future.
Depends, the NOx limit in EU is much higher than the US. The CO2 limit in the EU is lower than the US. Different things to optimize or cheat for.
EU has higher requirements for CO and in general lower requirements for NOx, except maybe very latest EuroN test that raises a bar closer to few years old EPA test. NOx is what matters for smog. Paris at times is no better than Chinese cities and now they try to prevent diesels entering downtown. Maybe they should not have allowed them on the roads in the first place.
European annual road tests are BS in most countries except Germany, Switzerland and few others that take them seriously. Especially anywhere to the East of Western Europe. First, you don't need to pass new test with old vehicles. You need to meet only some old BS test. Then, you can just quickly tune the system to produce better results before the test at the expense of efficiency, and tune back as soon as you leave testing facility. Many older cares on the road have catalytic converters removed - they cost money to replace, but you can actually sell them for small money for precious metals inside.
There is no practical way to control all old car emissions on roads EU wide.
I did an obsessive amount of research on VW's clean diesel technology, and the engineering issues that motivated their decision to cheat. Going hybrid would solve all their problems. Well, the technical ones anyway.
The problem is that their patented "clean NOx trap" pollution control technology involves storing NOx pollution in a zeolite "molecular sponge". The sponge needs to be cleaned out periodically by changing the engine fuel-to-air ratio: when that happens (for a few seconds every minute or two), engine performance is drastically reduced. VW's engine computer tries to keep this from happening while the driver is accelerating, but apparently it wasn't good enough, so they programmed the computer to not bother with trap cleaning unless it's being tested in an EPA lab.
With a full hybrid system, the engine can run at optimum efficiency at all times, and can take a break to clean the NOx trap whenever it wants: the electric motor and batteries can take over.
Try making reliable electronic systems. I know of no one who's bought a VW made in the last 10 years who hasn't fought with electronic engine control system gremlins.
10 years? Hell I owned a series of VWs from 1985-2003. (Scirocco, Golf, GTI, Jetta) My father owned several (3 Sciroccos, 2 Jettas, a Golf and a Passat plus Audi 5000) from 1977 to this year. My sister has owned several (Fox, Golf, Audi A3). EVERY single one of them save three, had electrical problems at one time or another. Usually something minor but sooner or later something electrical would break well before it should have been expected to break.
VWs in my experience will last a long time but you can absolutely count on having them in the shop for one thing or another routinely. Electrical gremlins are routine and problem the most common problem I've run into. VW vehicles are durable but not especially reliable in my experience.
So would I buy an electrical car from VW? HELL NO!
> Europe has far higher emission requirements than the US
European regulation crusades against high tail-pipe emissions of CO2 (global climate change arch-enemy) and PM10 (tiny soot particles eventually causing cancer and systematic heart failure after decades of accumulation in the lungs). PM10 is a big-big issue for diesels, necessitating particulate filters to meet Euro 4/5/6 norms. Another trick is "AdBlue" tech that uses acid refined from urination to wash tailpipe exhausts clean.
In contrast, as far as I understand, US regulations are much focused on the various nitrogen-oxides, which cause the classic "smog" effect. Generally speaking Europe receives more rain, so NOx is less of an issue for the old continent. (But France and especially its capital Paris is an exception to this generalization.) It should noted as well that Europe uses a lot of methane (~ Russia's piped natural gas) for heating and electric power generation, so their coal/wood burning emissions are lesser, helping to alleviate the NOx problem. (Poland is an exception in Europe, they are crazy about poor quality "brown" coal, have no reactor and afraid to buy much gas from Putin.) Meanwhile USA is a big consumer of coal and mineral oil.