Looking through diesel articles at "CAR", a UK magazine. I was amazed at references to the Prius.

Note: Quotes are from UK magazine and MPG reference are for Imperial gallons (1.2 US = 1 imperial gallon).

VW Polo TDI Bluemotion:
Mini Cooper D:
Ford Focus Econetec:
Smart ForTwo Limited:
Seat Ibiza Ecomotive:

 

We see a significant premium for diesel here. What about Europe? What are the relative costs of gas to diesel?

Bob Wilson

 

From a German gas finder website

Normal (91): 1.529 Euro/ltr
Super (95): 1.529 Euro/ltr
Super Plus (99): 1.589 Euro/ltr

Diesel: 1.499 Euro/ltr
Biodiesel: 1.429 Euro/ltr

Most european cars require 91 octane their regular, or premium in the US. So apples to apples the relative costs premium for diesel is 15% for regular or only 5% for premium in the US.

 

Please convert UK MPG to US MPG, list the combined fuel economy rating (not just highway),then list all the emissions of the vehicles listed (not just CO2) vs the Prius and lastly list the interior volume of those vehicles vs the Prius.

I think that will paint a far more complete picture of actual emissions and actual fuel economy vs usable size of vehicle.

 

Good points.
It would probably also be worthwhile to point out that the Prius has an automatic transmission. How many of it's wannabe competitors do?

 

I'm getting kind of sick of hearing how diesels in Europe get such incredible Prius-beating fuel economy and how they're going to make a comeback in the US. Every comparison is rigged. When the comparisons are done in the US by objective testers, suddenly diesels don't do so well. Also, diesels seem to mysteriously lose a lot of fuel economy when they cross the ocean.

 

In Europe were gas costs $9/g. Roughly 53.3% of the 19.7 million cars bought in 2007 were diesels. Oddly, I thought it was a good thing that the Prius has set the environmental "bar" high. As discussed in this forum Toyota is building a battery plant to get worldwide hybrid production to 1 million a year of which the Prius is only a subset.

diesel ref: (http://www.acea.be/index.php/news/ne...by_53_in_2007/)

Since you asked

UK | US | CO | CO2 | HC+NOx |
74.3 |61.9 | 99 |0.237| 0.257 | VW Polo Bluemotion/Seat Ibiza
72.4 |60.3 |104 |0.051| 0.182 | Mini Cooper D
65.7 |54.7 |114 |0.204| 0.179 | Ford Focus Econetec
65.7 |54.7 |104 |0.180| 0.030 | Toyota Prius

UK - Combined Mile / Imperial Gallon
US - UK converted to Mile / US Gallon
CO, CO2, HC+NOx - g/km

The Polo Ibiza is smaller than the US Golf/Rabbit, the Mini and Focus are similiar to US models and I couldn't find numbers for the Smart ForTwo Diesel.

 

Yeah, mine sucks, at only 60.2 lifetime MPG

 

Lets see the Polo is substantially smaller than a Prius in usable space, and when equipped with an A/C it gets UK MPG 70.2 with a 5 speed manual.

Unfortunately for a real commute car a stick shift makes very little sense, so with an auto the consumption would be?

In the UK no A/C might be OK, but most places it will not fly.

I wish I could get the interior dimensions, but this will give folks an idea (all dimension in meters)
Wheelbase|Length|width|height
2.466 |3.916 |1.650 |1.467 |Polo 5dr
2.700 |4.450 |1.725 |1.490 |Prius
2.578 |4.554 |1.781 |1.459 |Jetta

Now US Interior dimensions for Jetta and Prius (no Polo, yet??)
Cabin|Trunk (Both in cubic feet)
91 |16 |Jetta
96 |16 |Prius

So suddenly it paints a very different picture. A much smaller car, with a manual transmission (which won't fly in US metro commutes) that is almost 2 seconds slower to 62 miles per hour gets 6.8% better gas mileage (if equipped with A/C).



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soo8pIqCxjE

And that was UK MPG.

 

Just barely enough to get a 'hypermiler' star in the Insight database.

Bob Wilson