Honda to produce green diesel cars
Honda Motor Co. plans to become the first Japanese carmaker to produce passenger vehicles with low-pollution, fuel-efficient diesel engines, informs AFP.
Honda has developed a highly advanced catalyst that can cut nitrogen oxides and other emissions to levels on par with petrol vehicles. Although conventional diesel vehicles consume less fuel and emit less carbon dioxide than gasoline-powered cars, they do release harmful substances such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, without citing sources, that these vehicles emit 20 percent less carbon dioxide than petrol-powered ones and have a substantially reduced emission 
of nitrogen oxides compared with regular diesel cars. Even if these cars will consume more fuel than hybrids, they are expected to be comparable because diesel is 15 percent cheaper than petrol.
The possibility that diesel may become the new environmentally-friendly alternative in the automobile industry, made other Japanese carmakers very interested in this area, the business newspaper said.
The carmaker plans to release new diesel vehicles simultaneously in Japan and the United States by 2009, the paper said.
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