50 % share of the local (public bus ?) market ?!??
Over exggerated hype, i have to say !!
Because, in the 1st place, how matured is their natural gas bus
technology, especially relative to that from the more established
makers from Europe ?
On the more practical front, how viable are current natural gas
vehicles really, compared to the current lot of Euro-4 standard
diesel vehicles with provision for fuel additive ? Issues like
driving range, engine torque output performance, fuel utilisation
efficientcy & efficacy, vehicle payload, even safety when
compared to the well proven diesel vehicles ?!??
Modern diesel vehicles whether Euro-4 or Euro-5 with fuel additive
technology
are also 'pro envirnoment' it cannot be forgotten !! In addition,
they have the 'traditional' time proven practical benefits over
natural gas in areas mentioned above.
The overall picture is what which really matters. That therefore
CANNOT be merely on the issue of environmental 'friendliness' or
emissions alone !! Because if that's so, might as well go back to
the era of horse-drawn carriages only, since horses have no exhaust
pipe !
My impressions so far therefore (unfortunately) seem to be that
those who seem 'weak' in trying to perfect the time proven diesel
engine technology to meet the challenges of new emission demands
are the same lot who tries to push for the deployment of natural
gas technology instead, seemingly in ignorance of its relative
disadvantages with modern (current & up coming) diesel
technology !
If natural gas is really so fantastic, then every other vehicle
would have used it by now. That's of course NOT the case &
won't be so as long as modern state-of-the-art diesel & (to a
lesser extent) petrol engine technologies continue to be more
perfected in time to come.
All things considered, ultimately the well proven diesel
(especially) & petrol engine technology would continue to make
more sense for deployment, unless there's any 'big breakthrough' in
natural gas engine development big enough to turn the tables
around, of which is nowhere within sight, however !
This 'Korean product' mentioned in the original post, wonder if
it's from some Korean homegrown marque or instead some established
German marque who 'sub-cons' the manufacturing & assembly
operations under license to some Korean maker to produce or
actually a German maker producing from Korea ??
As for the issue of 'stricter' emission standards here in future,
that does not have to automatically mean only natural gas vehicles
would appeal, after all that's been mentioned above ! Modern diesel
vehicles with fuel additive technologies of Euro-4 (launched around
mid-2005) & Euro-5 (scheduled to take effect from 2009) are
practically just as if not ultimately remain THE more appealing
choices.
