Green Energy News | August 12, 1996

August 12, 1996 – Vol.1 No.20

ENERGIES... week of August 12, 1996

SAVE 33% ON GAS! Toyota Motor Co. of Japan will begin selling cars with a new fuel-efficient engine that burns at least a third less fuel. The secret is a super-lean fuel-to-air mixture coupled with direct fuel injection. The new 2 liter engine, dubbed the D-4, will burn a mixture that is three times leaner than typical engines. The direct injection system allows a rich mixture to swirl around the spark plug where it ignites, forcing the combustion of the much leaner mixture near the cylinder walls.

Most fuel injected cars today use a form of port injection where raw fuel is squirted into the intake manifold before it passes through the intake valves into the combustion chamber. Direct injection systems were developed decades ago, but never gained favor because of their high cost and complexity. Port injection systems used today became popular with tightening pollution and fuel consumption regulations along with the development of computer-operated fuel management systems and consumers hankering for more reliable and peppy cars.

The Toyota system may prove wildly popular in countries with high gasoline prices. Mitsubishi Motors will unveil similar technology next year.

OLD CAR TAX IN GERMANY. Starting next year heavy polluting cars without catalytic converters will be taxed at an annual rate of about $25 per 100 cubic centimeters while the rate on newer cleaner ones will be about $7 for the same measure of engine displacement. A tax like this in the U.S. would translate to approximately $133 per year for a new Saturn or about $1250 for Bill Clinton’s ‘67 Mustang. The goal of the stiff tax on dirty old cars is to keep them parked in garages or sent to the recycling yard. The Germans would like to see this tax Europe-wide by the year 2000.

ELSEWHERE ON THE CONTINENT car buffs aren’t pleased about the possibility of a new tax burden on their collectible cars. But the Green Party in Britain has a good point. Aside from the small numbers of classic cars actually on the road, in truth the energy needed and pollution created in the manufacturing of a new car may be greater than keeping an old car going for years. The Green Party prefers well-thought-out transportation policy and would not support the new tax.