GM Officially Launches Cruze Diesel

It seems a little premature to speculate about real-world highway mileage of the Cruze since official EPA numbers haven't even been published yet and the 42 mpg highway is just a projection by GM.

However, I'm not sure the 50 mpg real world is necessarily out of the realm of possibility since the Passat TDI AT has an official highway rating of "only" 40 mpg and 50 mpg has been reached in several highway tests. CR got 51 mpg highway and Edmunds got nearly 52 mpg @ 70 mpg in their interstate cruise test (The 40-MPG Challenge).

 

^^^
I'm actually annoyed by several parts:

- Re: payback and once gasoline reaches $4.50/gallon that diesel becomes more cost effective than any other type of technology, that hybrids somehow don't make sense for long distance highway driving

Well, in CR's tests, for example, not a single diesel car got better highway mileage (which they run at 65 mph) than the Prius, which got 55 mpg. See The Most Fuel-Efficient Cars | Best Cars for Gas - Consumer Reports. Some of those diesel cars were rated 42 mpg on the EPA highway test, like what the Cruze diesel is estimated to get. Even if the Cruze diesel matched the Prius at 55 mpg, the issue is that diesel usually costs more and the Cruze diesel car itself costs more than a Prius.

If gasoline reached $4.50/gallon, I doubt that diesel would be less.

From Daily Fuel Gauge Report--national, state and local average prices for gasoline, diesel and E-85. , the highest recorded national avg price was $4.11 for regular unleaded while on the same day diesel was at its record high of $4.845. In some parts of CA, where the highest recorded avg prices for gas and diesel were hit around the same time, diesel was always more: AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

- I also take issue of them trotting out "50 mpg". It's not an EPA rating and leaves out two important numbers: city and combined mileage. It's the same issue I have w/automakers cherry-picking and advertising only the highest number. I want this practice to stop and be made illegal. It should be all 3 numbers (city/highway/combined) in equal prominence or combined only.

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Absolutely the best milage number probably isn't either necessary or sufficient for a profitable car, or the original Insight would still be a great seller.
What the diesel industry needs is pretty d*** good mileage, plus educating the public that it really is a lot cleaner than it used to be, and works well even in cold weather. My wife loves the low-end torque of her Audi A-3 diesel, though she doesn't use that phrase.

 

How should that be quantified?

40 MPG is obviously not enough, since traditional gas cars can deliver close to the same thing. And if this diesel is even able to achieve ULEV, which doesn't seem likely, that's still not cleaner than common traditional gas cars.

Prius makes its mark by delivering 50 MPG and a PZEV emission rating. Seeing upper 40's for MPG and SULEV for emissions would be interesting, but still a bit of a stretch considering the price of diesel still more expensive than gas.

 

It sounds similar to the system in the passat which is ulev, or bin 5 where I live
Compare Side-by-Side

But the problem really is that it isn't that much better than the eco model, or the mazda 3 skyactiv, etc. Still if more people bought diesel cruzes instead of malibus that would save oil.

Seriously there are only about 5% of us that care about SULEV versus ULEV. A ULEV car today is so much cleaner than the average car on the road. I can see clean diesel getting higher percentage of the market, and that is a good thing, but the future really is plug-ins.

 

Your point point about diesel cruzes vs. malibus is exactly what I was trying to say.

 

Some data points:

1. Drag dictates the energy needed per mile - the EPA publishes three coefficients that plugged into a formula tells how much energy is needed to move a vehicle at any given speed. High-pressure, low rolling resistance tires; reduced transmission losses, and; reduced aerodynamics can improved vehicle efficiency but that is it. This is independent of the engine or motor.
2. Diesels and Atkinson cycle engines have overlapping BSFC - but the lean/rich exhaust of the Atkinson cycle can be catalytic reduced and diesel lean-only still have challenges.
3. USA, low-sulfur diesel fuel is more expensive than gasoline.
4. Hybrids keep the Atkinson engine at peak BSFC operating points which the others don't.

So I have nothing against the diesel Cruz but no interest in buying one either. As a 'Prius killer', it follows the VW Jetta/Golf/Passat path and those VW diesels remain 'in the pack'.

It is too soon to tell if the VW Jetta Hybrid will make a mark. I just get a little tired of non-Prius owners coming to this forum complaining about their ride. I can sympathize and we can share the physics that explain why but you pays your money and takes your chances.

Bob Wilson

 

Been there, done that. I hate paying premium gas prices for my Lexus IS. I especially dislike the higher (highest) cost of diesel fuel for our 2006 NewBeetle diesel, with almost zero downward fluctuation for several years. My 2012 Prius Plug is almost three weeks old. Looking forward to paying for the least expensive fuel, in one of the highest MPG rated vehicles available. Win-win for us. Neither vehicle put us in the poor house, but the Prius is a psychological victory.

 

I think it'll bring modern diesel to a much wider audience.

If you've not driven a diesel car since 1982, then pop along to your local GM dealer and give this one a go. You'll be amazed at the performance and power from a 2.0 litre 4 pot.

At least then you can say you've driven one

(ps, notice I've avoided any reference to the reliability of GM's European diesels - or lack thereof)

 

It doesn't seem much better, but it'll perform much better. The performance could win people over, but with it being a high spec compact sedan it's not going to get many compact converts. With the Mazda 6 diesels coming and the Passat diesel available it's not going to get much downsizing either. But, I think it'll steal some Jetta sales and overall get enough on the road to keep GM selling it.

However, I suspect there'll be enough interest in the car at dealerships that GM should be convinced to release it in a lower trim when the platform is upgraded and at that point, as long as the2014 doesn't get a bad rep, sales would jump. Of course, by then there could be more competition.

 

I don't think anyone ever said cruze diesel was prius killer, nor that it will appeal to the hybrid buyer. What it might do is raise the ASP and MPG of some cruzes, and might get conquest sales from that part of the market that wants a diesel but one is not available.

The Jetta hybrid is an important car in VW's drive to world domination. It wants to outsell Toyota by 2018, and sees world economy standards rising. For that to happen it needs to up its jetta and Passat sales in North America, and the hybrid is one of those fairly easy to add on technologies for vw after its work with Porsche on their shared hybrid SUVs.

I think GM and VW are hoping that more diesels will gain mind share and if they get people test driving them then both companies will profit. Mazda 6 sells much less than the cruze, so even if it gets a much higher take rate, it won't get as many sales. The interesting thing about the skyactiv diesel is it takes an opposite approach to most vw on diesel tech. It goes low compression but electronically variable input valves. Doing this it can lower NOx enough to get by without UREA and lower weight making it a less expensive to produce if done at similar volumes. I'm interested to see how it does in EPA and Euro 6 testing, but Mazda might be able to make money licensing the tech.

The redesigned corolla is the biggest change on the horizon for that market. I don't think diesel will get it high numbers, but say they get a loyal 20% that's good for GM.... as long as there are not reliability problems. I don't like the non-di turbo 1.4L engine in the cruze. It seems to leave a lot of efficiency on the table.

 

I fundamentally disagree that emissions are a legitimate issue with diesels, ULEV/SULEV/PZEV notwithstanding.

In the first place, many of the "clean diesels" currently in production in the U.S and Canada are close enough to SULEV as to make no practical difference in the amount of environmental damage produced. The 2013 MB E350 BlueTec even hits the SULEV NOx limit (0.02 g/mile).

Furthermore, even though gasoline vehicles have gotten very clean at the tailpipe, gasoline's Achilles heel is the degree of volatility of the fuel itself...leading to relatively high upstream VOC emissions relative to diesel fuel (ULSD). According to EPA emission factors, most of these VOC emissions are in the "fuel transport, storage and distribution" stage which means that most are local emissions. Gasoline produces about 5.7 grams of VOC emissions per gallon while ULSD produces about 0.95 grams per gallon (VOC emissions upstream of the refinery are the same).

There may be other legitimate issues with marketing diesels in the U.S. (e.g., persistently higher fuel costs), but the emissions issue isn't one of them in my opinion.

 

Plus ULSD smells better than gasoline.

 

Do we really want to usher in a new line of vehicles that only deliver a minimum?

There's a new level of ratings about to be introduced because we cannot afford to put 100's of millions of new vehicles on the road only achieving ULEV based on an old standard.

Once upon a time, America led the way. Now, we settle for close enough. Where's the "can do" spirit?

 

In my mind I flashed back to office space -> do you want to wear the minimum flare?

Really did you read the bin 5 stuff on the pasat diesel. We seem to be raising some levels just for the sake of raising them. Don't get me wrong, Europe has had standards that were too low with diesels. So yeah, if the 10+ year old vehicle fleet was replaced with the new clean diesels then the air of the major cities would be cleaner and we would use less oil.

Go to a prius phv or a volt or a tesla powered by wind/solar/natural gas electricity and you use even less oil and have even cleaner air in the cities.

 

Autoline After Hours interviewed one of the diesel Cruze engineers:
Autoline After Hours

However, John McElroy one of the presenters, pointed out:

• diesels have more consistent MPG - this matches my earlier studies of the Jetta diesel
• turbo-gas engines too easily miss EPA targets - the consensus was it is too easy to 'punch it' and get out of fuel efficient power ranges
• CVTs - deliver good mileage but 'gear heads' don't like them

It is a good listen when commuting.

Bob Wilson

 

Again, most of the diesel vehicle currently offered in the U.S./Canada are very close to SULEV.

Here is the exhaust emissions profile of the 2013 MB E350 BlueTec...


2013 E350 BlueTec (Certified Emissions (http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroad/cert/pcldtmdv/2013/daimler_pc_a0030449r1_3d0_u2_diesel.pdf) vs. SULEV Standard)

(Grams/Mile)

Emission..........................Cert.....................SULEV Standard

NMHC.……........................0.015....................0.010 (exceeds)
CO...................................0.2........................1.0 (meets)
NOx.................................0.02......................0.02 (meets)
NOx Hwy........................0.005.....................0.03 (meets)
PM..................................0.002....................0.01 (meets)
NMHC+NOx (US06)............0.07......................0.14 (meets)
NMHC+NOx (SC03)............0.10......................0.20 (meets)
CO (US06)......................0.01......................8.0 (meets)
CO (SC03)......................0.01......................2.7 (meets)


Are the exhaust emissions overall as low as the Prius? No, but how many new cars are?

Yes, I'm aware of California's impending LEV III regulations (if that's what you're referring to), but the ULEV standard will still be in effect (actually, the emission categories will be expanded to 6 categories, with 3 "ULEV" categories - see Emission Standards: USA: Cars and Light-Duty Trucks—California). The main caveat is that the car fleet will have to average "SULEV30".

EPA is supposed to publish their Tier 3 proposal sometime this summer. Probably will be similar to California's LEV III.

But again, there are advantages to diesels with respect to emissions. Here are my calculated well-to-wheels emissions of the diesel (ULEV) and gasoline (PZEV) versions of the VW Passat (EPA emission factors)...



I've explained my methodology at Gas vs. Diesel Well-to-Wheels Emissions if you're interested. Is the PZEV gasoline Passat really better from an overall emissions perspective than the ULEV Passat TDI?

 

I'm curious, do you have this for NMOG or just HC. I thought we swiched/were switching to NMOG from NMHC and HC since non hydrocarbon organic compounds like ethanol in E10 are considered as big of polluters as some hydrocarbons.

 

Yes, it's actually NMOG for the gasoline vehicle. I combined NMOG/NMHC and NOx because it's combined in the supplemental FTP in the US06 and SC03 duty cycles.

NMOG/NMHC and NOx will be combined in all duty cycles (including FTP) in the forthcoming LEV III regs.

 

Cool, then it should be NMOG + NOx in the legend. Since NMOG is HC - methane + organic alcohols. I wonder since these things are NM - non methane because methane disperses so quickly that it is not unhealthy from tail pipes. But the EPA seems to be focused on ghg, so I am not sure why their ghg score does not include this methane?