One Price Its Appetite Won't Drive Up: China Reportedly Cool To Clean Diesel
By John O'Dell November 13, 2008
Here's some good news for clean diesel fans: China apparently won't be sucking it all up they way it had been consuming the global gasoline supply before everyone's economy collapsed.
In China, diesel is for tractors.
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A day after a representative of China's National Development and Reform Commission said that plug-in hybrids and electric cars were key to the future success of the Chinese auto industry, a major trade journal is reporting that the Middle Kingdom's central government doesn't see much future in clean-diesel fueled vehicles.
That fuel "is almost out of the debate," the subscription-only Automotive News China quoted an unnamed member of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology as saying.
The ministry advisor also said, according to the magazine, that Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang prefers hybrid technology for the short term and believes it will help lead to widespread use of electric cars.
But the idea of high-mileage diesel cars, especially diesel-electric hybrids, has lost popularity because of internal issues, mostly related to the high cost of cleaning the fuel, low refining capacity within China and the high level of demand for what diesel does exist there by China's huge agricultural industry.
Funding for diesel development accounts for only about 3 percent of the money available for alternative fuels and technologies, the trade magazine reported, while battery-electric and fuel-cell electric projects get 60 percent.
Analysts at Global insight point out that gas-electric hybrid and all-electric vehicles make sense in China because the vast majority of personal auto travel is in low-mileage, intercity trips where such technologies shine. For its best fuel economy, diesel is more suited to long-distance travel, which is rare in China among private motorists.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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Love the picture. Is that a Chinese street sweeper?
brn,
You got it! Its from an open-source photo collection and wasn't dated, so I don't know how old it is, but the buses look fairly contemporary.
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