Despite lithium battery investments, Bosch still bullish on diesel
2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Sportwagen - click above for high-res image gallery
While most of the hype for light duty diesel engines in America of the past two years has died down in favor of plug-in vehicles, not everyone has given up compression ignition. Top of the list is Bosch. While the world's largest auto supplier has garnered attention for its joint venture with Samsung to produce lithium ion batteries, it garners far more revenue today for its fuel systems and expects to do so for some time in the future.
Speaking to Automoblie, Dr. Johannes-Joerg Rueger, the senior VP of diesel engineering at Robert Bosch GmbH still expects light duty diesels to account for 15 percent of North American sales by 2015. On the flip-side, he only sees five percent of worldwide sales going to hybrids and electrics in that same time frame. At this point, unless a number of automakers like Honda and Hyundai take the success of the VW Jetta TDI to heart and reverse course to bring diesels to the U.S., It's hard to see how diesels will get there. Of course, with TDI versions of the new Golf and the Passat replacement coming this fall and in 2011, perhaps the VW group can do it alone.
Gallery: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Sportwagen
Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Automobile]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Throwback 9:34AM (8/19/2009)
"Of course, with TDI versions of the new Golf and the Passat replacement coming this fall and in 2011, perhaps the VW group can do it alone"
The VW group is certainly big enough.
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paulwesterberg 9:43AM (8/19/2009)
Thats funny because bosch makes one of the best electric mowers with lithium battery and 3 hours of run time. Of course you cant buy it in the united states though.
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RB 10:38AM (8/19/2009)
The primary reason manufacturers have "shelved" clean diesel plans is because the administration has free the states to individually regulate tailpipe emissions and so on. This simply is an untenable economic model. A single national standard, preferably one very similar to, if not the same as the European standard, is necessary for the manufacturers to make a go of it. Manufacturers, such as VW, which have already brought product to market will continue to sell it until the changes sufficiently impact them and will then, no doubt, drop them. Manufacturers such as Honda have "shelved" clean diesel plans for their auto line.
The policy makes no sense in terms of energy policy.
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russellgeister 6:42PM (8/20/2009)
i don't know why manufacturers are writing off diesel b100 from waste and green alge will become a mature tecnology before lithium batteries do. sorry to the ev folks i like em too, but having said that biodiesel is an easier tecnology to mature and the infrastructure already is already in place to get it to the customer.
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