[sa_kiran]

Originally Posted by Aroy

A commercial vehicle does at least 500km/day, normally 800+ a day, compared to an average of less than 50/day for private cars.

800+ km a day for commercial vehicles seems impossible. Even if they are driven for 12 hours a day, they have to maintain an average speed of well over 70 kmph to achieve this. This average speed is possible only in some limited sections of highways.

[bison]

Originally Posted by sa_kiran

800+ km a day for commercial vehicles seems impossible. Even if they are driven for 12 hours a day, they have to maintain an average speed of well over 70 kmph to achieve this. This average speed is possible only in some limited sections of highways.

800km a day is normal for many types of commercial vehicles.
Take example of inter city buses. Bangalore hyderabad, bangalore mumbai, bangalore trivandrum. These buses cover the distance in 12-15 hours.
Though trucks maintain a lower average speed, they run for long hours covering more distance per day.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by singhsid

To add to the "dirty fuel" debate, I was reading a report on global warming/climate where it was mentioned that when it comes to GHG, diesel is marginally worse - releasing 2.5kg of CO2 per liter compared to petrol's 2.2kg of CO2 per liter. Can't comment on overall impact because I have no clue about the amount of diesel/petrol consumed daily in India.

With proper fuel quality and state of the art catalytic converter, diesel engines emit less pollution than petrols. Look up the latest Mercedes engines.

[sa_kiran]

Originally Posted by Aroy

With proper fuel quality and state of the art catalytic converter, diesel engines emit less pollution than petrols. Look up the latest Mercedes engines.

Catalytic converter is the point raised by Sunita Narain in the link I had posted earlier. German car makers have lobbied to make it not mandatory in India, while it is mandatory in Europe.

[sa_kiran]

Originally Posted by bison

800km a day is normal for many types of commercial vehicles.
Take example of inter city buses. Bangalore hyderabad, bangalore mumbai, bangalore trivandrum. These buses cover the distance in 12-15 hours.
Though trucks maintain a lower average speed, they run for long hours covering more distance per day.

I agree that some buses, mostly Volvos, can cover that kind of distance. I used to travel Pune-Bangalore by KSRTC Volvo, they used to cover about 850 km in 17-18 hours. Overloaded trucks (they are in a majority on Indian roads) can not cover this kind of distances.

[singhsid]

Originally Posted by Aroy

With proper fuel quality and state of the art catalytic converter, diesel engines emit less pollution than petrols. Look up the latest Mercedes engines.

I don't think we should count as Mercedes as a typical usage for diesel engines, have a feeling that most diesel cars in India would be smaller sedans which would serve as cabs and would be lucky to undergo two regular services per year!!

[wildsdi5530]

@sa kiran, these overloaded trucks and volvos are the very ones the govt. wants to subsidize. At the cost of small time sedans and hatchbacks.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by sa_kiran

I agree that some buses, mostly Volvos, can cover that kind of distance. I used to travel Pune-Bangalore by KSRTC Volvo, they used to cover about 850 km in 17-18 hours. Overloaded trucks (they are in a majority on Indian roads) can not cover this kind of distances.

Even if you take a conservative figure of 500km/day, that is ten times the 50km/day for a private car. Delhi buses do 300-500+ km daily runs in three shifts. Add an FE hit of 4 times (4 vs 16km/L), you get the figure of 40 times more diesel consumed by a truck compared to a private vehicle.

Rural taxis do 500-800km/day on a regular basis. Even the government staff cars cover 100-200km per day easily, while the call centre cabs easily cover 400+.

What I wanted to convey is that for a commercial vehicle long runs daily are a necessity to remain commercially viable, hence the high diesel consumption with respect to a private vehicle.

[Fornax]

Here's the true picture the car lobby and Diesel car/MUV/SUV owners wouldn't like us to see:
A. 40% of Personal cars sold are Diesel.
B. 80%+ of all petrol cars sold are in the sub-1200cc category.
C. 40%+ of all diesel cars sold are in the 1500cc+ category.

CSE argues for additional tax on diesel cars due to losses - The Economic Times

[wildsdi5530]

@ Fornax- while agreeing to your data, I think additional taxes on buying the car will not offset the losses due to susiry.
This thread is about fuel consumption. The 40% of diesel cars still give an efficiency of 14-18 kmpl. So even dual pricing stipulated by the govt. will not work
What would work is dual pricing like for LPG. If there was commercial diesel for all commercial vehicles including trucks, buses, taxis, autos, railways and for generators and heavy machinery, that would solve the problem.