The Diesel Technology Forum (DTF), a non-profit national organization dedicated to raising awareness about diesel engines, fuel, and technology, presented new research to the California Energy Commission Panel that states California will reduce vehicle fuel use and emissions in the future due to the greater acceptance of clean diesel technology. The research was collected by the Martec Group, a market research and consulting group, which was commissioned by the DTF.
According to Allen Schaeffer, the executive director of DTF, some of the major findings of the new research include:
- California is the number one state today in overall diesel car and pickup truck registrations.
- From 2010-2012, California was the number one state with the fastest growth in registrations of new diesel cars and SUVs.
- California has the third highest registration (20 percent) of the new generation (2007 and later) clean diesel commercial trucks (Class 3-8).
2005‐2012 light-duty diesel engines have saved California consumers:
- 0.7 million tons of CO2.
- 110 million gallons of gasoline.
- 2.5 million barrels of crude oil.
Conservative estimates of fuel savings and CO2 reductions for 130,000 new light-duty diesel engines sold each year between 2013‐2020 will save California consumers an additional:
- 165 million to 240 million gallons of gasoline.
- 1.0 to 1.3 million tons of CO2.
In addition, according to ExxonMobil’s 2013: The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040, not only will diesel surpass gasoline as the number one global transportation fuel by 2020, diesel demand will also account for 70 percent of the growth in demand for all transportation fuels through 2040. ExxonMobil also projects that natural gas will remain only a small share of the global transportation fuel mix, at 4 percent by 2040, up from today’s 1 percent.