Bosch Boss Says Diesel is Here to Stay

Martin Schwoerer
by Martin Schwoerer

Car makers like to take the credit, but auto suppliers have invented much of contemporary car technology. So when the boss of Germany's Bosch (the world's biggest auto supplier) talks about the future of automotive technology, people listen. Here's what Bernd Bohr had to say to Auto, Motor und Sport . "For the year 2015, we expect a total world market of 80 million new cars, of which only about 2.5 to 3 million will be hybrids and 800,000 will be purely electric. So gasoline and diesel engines will continue to predominate. Actually, we calculate that the world market share of diesel cars will rise by another 5 percent, to reach 28 percent." How come? "Despite disproportionate price increases for diesel fuel, in places such as France the share of diesels has increased from 70 to 80 percent, because of a new CO2 tax. Diesels are 30 percent more efficient, too. There is a political dimension: the EU's ambitious plans to reduce CO2 emissions are only reachable if Europe stays at least 50 percent diesel." But the U.S. has shown that diesel is a no go, no? "This is mainly because of high prices for low-sulfur diesel fuel which is caused by low refinery capacities. This bottleneck should be gone around 2010. We expect a diesel market share for the U.S. of 15 percent by 2015". Are you betting the company on these predictions? "We plan to reduce our dependence on auto technology from currently 61 percent to 50 percent."

Martin Schwoerer
Martin Schwoerer

More by Martin Schwoerer

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 35 comments
  • Ppellico Ppellico on Aug 05, 2008

    psarhjinian You simply do not know what you are talking about. If this were true...then simply put, diesel would always have been higher than gas. It has never been so...until now. Read..bottleneck. And you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about with the modern diesel. In fact, they are able to run on the biodiesel fuels now sold.

  • Mirko Reinhardt Mirko Reinhardt on Aug 05, 2008

    @ ppellico In fact, they are able to run on the biodiesel fuels now sold. The fuel filler cap of my 3-week-old BMW 118d has "NO BIODIESEL" written all over it in big green letters.

  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Aug 05, 2008
    You simply do not know what you are talking about. If this were true…then simply put, diesel would always have been higher than gas. It has never been so…until now. That would be three factors: 1. Supply and demand. And demand for crude oil is going upwards, so don't expect the price for it's derivatives to go down. And since there's only a fixed amount of refined fuel available from a given unit of crude, a spike in gasoline demand would reduce available diesel, which would thusly spike diesel prices further. 2. Diesel (in Europe) has benefited from artificially lower tax rates; in North America, it's benefited from being useless, until recently, for anything other than heating oil and heavy equipment. Because we weren't powering passenger cars with very tight emissions standards and highly complex injection systems, the quality of fuel could be poor (and thusly plentiful and cheap), so much more was available, which leads to... 3. Modern diesel engines, ULSD, and such. It's much more expensive to make ULSD than it is to make regular, fresh-outta-the-can tractor fuel; it must be refined (it can't be made from "leftovers") and every unit of modern diesel made results in fewer units of gasoline, which is a problem (see #1) Read..bottleneck. And you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about with the modern diesel. In fact, they are able to run on the biodiesel fuels now sold. Biodiesel, blended biodiesel and straight vegetable oil are not the same thing, any more than ethanol, blended Ethanol and straight alcohol are. There are a significant number of engines that will accept B10 or B20, but not B100, just as most cars can handle E10, some E85 but very few E100. Most modern, passenger-car diesels will flat out die if you run SVO. The 80s-vintage 300D running on melted earwax that people continually bring up as an example of the Power Of Diesel is rather a red herring. Again, go on and try running an E320 BlueTec on straight veggie oil and let me know how that goes for you. Biodiesel has the same net-energy problems that ethanol has: it's not necessarily net-energy-positive, or net-carbon-positive, to run biodiesel. It can be, depending on the circumstances in which it's made, but blanket statements about it's environmental friendliness effect are disingenuous, if not plain wrong.
  • Ppellico Ppellico on Aug 05, 2008

    psarhjinian Thanks for the great detailing.You sound very informed and it was nice. But your one point about the oil limit is misleading. The fact that something has a "fixed amount" means nothing..IF you don't know what the end amount is. As I have tried to explain for months on this sight and to others is there is not a shortage of oil. In fact, we have limited ourselves to its discovery and its removal. So don't talk about oil as if it has already seen these limits as there has been no such real information. And, in fact again, it has begun to decline in price. So what gives with your therory? It should actually just keep rising. I never said all diesels run on all biodiesels. I don't care about BMW diesels and their limits. In fact again, most new diesels coming out actually brag about their abilities to use the biodiesels available. Even the VW interviews have them spouting these benefits. Now, you may be right when discussing the cost to produce diesel today. With the new, lower sulfer rules and the increased government taxes on diesel, the old cost rules are out the window. I think...? I am really not sure of the actual cost comparisons and have searched for a long, long time for the truth, the numbers. Nobody comes clean with the facts. Perhaps TTAC can give us the low down for once. As it is, if all stays as it is now, diesels are better because of the mileage and longevity of the diesel engine. Not so sure if cost to produce diesels keeps rising and the new bio diesels do not catch on with production. Thanks for the nice information, however.

Next