Supplier Bosch Touts Modern Diesel-Engine Technology

Modern diesel cars are 27% more economical and 21% less polluting than they were 10 years ago, thanks to technological innovations by automotive suppliers.

Bosch U.K. says over that decade, the increasing number of diesel cars fitted with advanced components, such as common-rail diesel and stop/start, significantly have reduced both emissions and operating costs.

It says the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ annual New Car CO2 Report shows if diesel cars were only as fuel-efficient as they were 10 years ago, the average annual fuel bill for 12,000 miles (19,320 km) of driving would be £1,690 ($2,807) rather than the £1,330 ($2,209) it is today. That means today’s motorists are saving up to £360 ($598) a year.

Bosch bases its estimates on last year’s average U.K. price for diesel of £1.41 a liter ($8.87 a gallon).

Bosch U.K. President Peter Fouquet says in addition, today’s less-polluting diesel cars are reducing the region’s carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 826,700 tons (750,000 t) a year.

“As diesel-car sales continue to rise, we are focused on constantly innovating new technologies that help reduce emissions from diesel cars and make them cheaper to run,” he says in a statement.

One of the supplier’s recent milestone innovations was the 2007 introduction of stop/start, which automatically turns the engine off when the car comes to a stop, starting it again when the brakes are released. It now is fitted to every other new car manufactured in Western Europe and helps reduce their emissions up to 8%, saving the average driver more than £100 ($165.70) a year.

Fouquet says Bosch will continue to make diesel technology more efficient, and this effort likely will include hybrid vehicles.

The first diesel hybrid production car was brought to market in 2011 by Peugeot, using Bosch technology to help its CUV, the 3008 HYbrid4, achieve CO2 emissions of just 99 g/km.

“Hybrid diesel technology can reduce fuel consumption in diesel cars by around 40% and will help manufacturers to meet the European 2020 emissions target for new-car CO2 emissions of 95 g/km,” Fouquet says.