Diesel restrictions in Belgium and The Netherlands, bans in Germany
Rudolf Diesel was a French born and raised German who invented the famous engine named after him in 1883, just in time for its application to motor vehicles. He died under mysterious circumstances in 1913, but his engine was and is a marvel.
Diesel engines are highly efficient. Much more so than gasoline engines. But they emit a lot of soot. Germany, an early user of the engine, is banning them for some sort of environmental reason, presumably this is it. Similar proposals are afoot in other European nations.
Nothing of the sort, of course, is presently proposed here. Well. . .that's not quite true. . .based upon what little I know about the Green New Deal proposal, maybe there actually is. But it's certainly not going to happen overnight. Indeed, diesels, and I have one (it's my second) only really entered the American light truck picture about twenty five years ago or so, after having had been a big deal in Europe forever. And they're hugely popular here now.
But stuff like this has me vaguely wondering about something. I probably should replace a vehicle with a newer one, and my vehicles are largely trucks. I can't predict the future of course, but I hang on to my vehicles for a long time. We've reached the point where all the major car manufactures are seriously starting to manufacture electric automobiles. Are internal combustion engine vehicles on the way out, and if they are, should I hold off? It'd be the pits to get stuck with an expensive vehicle that becomes obsolete.
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