diesel

Refrigerator trucks may not be sexy, but they play a vital role in our day-to-day lives by carrying food and supplies from one part of the country to another. However, they also contribute a significant amount of pollution on our roads.

Aura Systems, a company based in El Segundo, Calif., on Wednesday introduced a mobile-power system that keeps produce cold by using electricity instead of diesel fuel.

Traditional refrigeration trucks use a separate diesel engine to drive the compressor that keeps the inside of the truck cold. The extra engine not only emits more pollutants, but is also extremely expensive … Read more

FedEx Europe subsidiary FedEx Express plans to add 10 diesel-electric hybrid vans to its fleet, the company announced Monday.

The vehicles, made by Fiat Group company Iveco, will be used in routes around Turin, Italy, where the company has a manufacturing plant.

"FedEx is making smart strategic investments in projects that will help drive the commercial development of new technologies for industry. We expect these hybrid-electric vehicles to perform with increased fuel efficiency and decreased emissions, making them ideal for city and urban environments," Robert W. Elliott, president of FedEx Express, said in a statement.

A sample van … Read more

Jaguar announced Friday that it will be offering a diesel engine with automatic transmission option for the 2008 Jaguar X-Type.

The 2.2-liter diesel engine will come with a six-speed automatic transmission, as well as the Jaguar Sequential Shift.

The car, which is available in both left and right hand drive, will be available in the U.K. in March 2008 and in Europe in April 2008. No word yet on a U.S. release.

See pictures of the new 2008 Jaguar X-Type.

The new models and concept cars just keep on coming at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show. One notable trend at this year's event is the willingness of luxury German automakers to finally embrace hybrid technology, with Audi, BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes all either announcing production hybrids or showing off advanced hybrid concepts. Meanwhile, the 2009 Jaguar XF shows that concept technology can make it off the auto show floor, as the latest Big Cat retains its futuristic shifter for production. On the subject of cabin gadgetry, automotive equipment manufacturer Siemens VDO showed off its next-generation in-car touch screen technology, … Read more

If diesels and hybrid cars both get great mileage, why not add a hybrid system to a diesel engine? Mercedes-Benz decided to answer that in the affirmative, showing off numerous diesel-electric hybrids at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show. Because diesel engines and electric motors duplicate their most efficient performance bands, high torque at low RPMs, Mercedes-Benz found a small hybrid system was all that was needed on its Bluetec diesel electrics, rather than the more robust two-mode system coming out on its ML450 and S400.

In 2010, Mercedes-Benz will launch the E300 and the S300, both cars using a Bluetec … Read more

Transonic is coming clean with its ambitions: it is working on a fuel injection system that will let liquid fuel cars get 100 miles a gallon.

And an engine equipped with Transonic's technology will be able to run on gas, ethanol or other types of fuel without help from batteries. In other words, a car with a Transonic-assisted engine would get as good or better mileage than a plug-in hybrid (mileage on plug-ins drops on freeways) but still have the punch of a gas car. More mileage leads directly to lower emissions, and also less dependence on foreign oil. … Read more

Looks like the 2008 C30 from Volvo will offer more to entice young consumers than just an impressive sound system, a hatchback with room for Ikea packages and a wonderfully quirky Web site.

Volvo announced Monday that an "Efficiency" version of the 2008 C30 with a 1.6-liter turbo diesel engine will get about 4.5 liters/100 km (52 mpg).

Additionally, Volvo said that its Volvo C30, S40 and V50 with the 2-liter turbo diesel engine will have a new "Powershift" gearbox that will reduce overall fuel consumption by about 8 percent.

The Volvo C30 … Read more

One big yellow bus is going green in Napa County. The Northern California school district today received a plug-in hybrid diesel-electric school bus -- the first of its kind in the state.

The move is part of a nation-wide initiative aimed at reducing school bus emissions and cutting costs by improving fuel efficiency. The program is led by Advanced Energy, a non-profit corporation based in Raleigh, N.C.

The bus, which doesn't look terribly innovative on the outside, is built by IC Corporation, the largest school bus manufacturer in the country. It uses a hybrid drive technology dubbed a … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--This is sort of like the "two, two, two mints in one" solution for the clean-tech set.

Australia's Terra Fuel Technologies has come up with a device that, when added to a diesel car, bus or truck, lets the vehicle also run partly on ethanol. You need to add a second gas tank on the vehicle to hold ethanol, but in the end, it's an ethanol-diesel car. The device, a black box, controls the flow of ethanol into the engine.

The company has tested it and will start selling it in the United … Read more