I've been thinking about this, why are there no diesel hybrids?

hybrids are crap on long motorway journeys (~45MPG) whereas diesels are great for this workload (when warm). Conversely at startup from home to motorway (in most cases) the diesel is cold and poorly performing until warm whereas the hybrid is efficient using its electric motors.

This seems to be a mutually beneficial marriage. I wonder what technical problems stop it from becoming a viable production reality?

Any thoughts?

 

Hybrids are mostly Japanese and American where Diesel isn't popular. The whole point of them is for people that won't let go of their petrol engines.

So I'd speculate that the reason why it hasn't been done (mass market anyway) isn't to do with any technical barriers, but more to do with marketability.

 

I've read that a few of the German marques will have cars out soon regarding deisel hybrids.

 

VW have a diesel hybrid polo, bluejobbie or something.

 

It's not a hybrid Boab, just a plain old diesel, with aero parts and weight saving.

 

You're mistaken with this assertion.

Over three years and 85K miles, my Prius averaged 53-54 mpg on my daily commute - 44 miles each way - urban crawl and congestion at either end and A1M in the middle of it.

The best I managed was over 63 mpg but that was trying extremely hard.

A diesel, blown or otherwise, is more complex and expensive than a petrol engine and when you factor in the fuel premium of diesel over petrol, there's not much in the way of economic sense for a diesel hybrid as far as I can see.

I suspect there may also be technical issues with stop-starting a diesel as effectively as a petrol unit. The engine in my Prius was on and off more times than a light at a morse code convention.

I would have another Prius in an instant - they're the best real-world car around at the moment.

 

BlueMotion

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/volkswagen-wor...ent/blue-motion

Not a hybrid, just very efficient (but real life driving is not getting anywhere near the MPG claims of VW).

 

Can you expand on this?

 

BURN HIM!

 

I have a super efficent sports car then. It has aero parts and weightsaving.