It keeps coming up (including most recently) – Why no diesel smarts in the US; when are we going to get them? It has everything to do with US EPA regulations, now and in the future.
After a hiatus in diesel availability for the past few years, a limited number of new diesels are returning, all of them medium-to-large size vehicles, which may or may not be 50-state compliant. Several states have their own regulations that are stricter than the EPA, and manufacturers may not be willing to introduce vehicles that are eliminated from the big Northeast and California markets. Producing a 50-state compliant vehicle isn’t easy.
The toughest hurdle is the control of nitric oxide (generically, NOx) emissions, and to a lesser degree particulates, then CO/CO2. The EPA has approved only one technology to control NOx, aqueous urea injection into a second specialized catalytic converter (this in addition to a normal ULSD cat and a particulate filter/burner). The aqueous urea system involves a significant amount of hardware and a liquid urea tank big enough to supply the A/U in a 1:20 ratio to diesel fuel. The smart is just too small to fit all the equipment into and still be a smart-sized vehicle.
There are other issues with A/U. The EPA has deemed that the periodic topping up of the A/U tank will be a dealer operation not an owner operation. An owner won’t be able to pick up a can of A/U at the corner gas station/convenience store. Mercedes-Benz and VW may be able to pull it off with their extensive dealer networks, but smart’s 70-or-so dealers nationwide won’t be able to handle it. And the tanks MUST be kept filled with some amount of A/U; the EPA is massaging a regulation that will require that a vehicle be disabled if the tank is run dry. The A/U is the “BlueTec/AdBlue” stuff developed jointly by Mercedes-Benz, VW and BMW.
Another issue is the nature of the A/U itself. It must be kept fastidiously clean and stored and delivered from special tankage. If the A/U is allowed to freeze (at 12F), its effectiveness is destroyed upon thawing. I don’t know how vehicles left out in very cold environments are going to keep the A/U heated. Finally, A/U isn’t cheap; it runs about half the price of diesel oil (which is no longer cheap either).
There are “dry” technologies being worked on, but so far there is no fruition (and it isn’t EPA approved). Toyota’s “D-CAT” system does work – initially. But it looses its effectiveness after about 30,000 miles and has to be replaced. Mitsubishi’s take on it is apparently further behind, and aimed at engines twice the size of the smart’s. They all involve a bit of additional hardware like the A/U systems.
In the face of tightening regulations, both in NA and the EU, and with more exotic propulsion plants on the near horizon, don’t expect M-B/smart to go far with the diesel. It may be that the coming Euro-5/6 regulations will kill what is left of the Continental smart diesels, leaving them only available in some third-world markets if at all. Another wrinkle in developing clean diesels is the disparity in goals between NA and the EU. We (NA) regulate to control NOx; the EU regulates to control CO2. Tough to have it both ways.
def a business opportunity with nitrous
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