What's the news?
German car technology firm Bosch has taken a recent Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) report as an opportunity to blow its own trumpet regarding its key involvement in ever-cleaner diesel motoring.
The SMMT New Car CO2 report, released on March 13, claims that new diesel cars are 21 per cent less polluting and 27 per cent more economical than they were in 2003 - saving motorists hundreds of pounds per year on fuel bills and reducing CO2 emissions nationwide by several hundred thousand tonnes annually.
Bosch has played a role throughout, slotting a turbocharger under the bonnet of the Audi 100 TDI in 1989, pioneering common-rail injection in 1997 on the Alfa 156 2.4 JTD and taking said system to new heights in 2004 with higher rail pressure thanks to piezo injectors; Bosch says the latter of these developments reduced emissions on diesel cars by 15-20 per cent alone.
But perhaps the biggest advancement was start-stop technology, another Bosch innovation, which is now fitted to every other new car manufactured in Western Europe and reduces emissions by a quoted eight per cent a year. Looking to the future, diesel hybrids - such as the Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4 that went on sale in 2011 - will be the focus for Bosch as manufacturers aim to meet European 2020 emissions targets for new car CO2 emissions of 95g/km.
Anything else?
Peter Fouquet, president of Bosch UK, said: "Motorists today benefit from much cleaner diesel cars than those that were on the market even ten years ago. 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."
Matt Robinson - 19 Mar 2014