Diesel in Japan

[Leo Maximus]

Hi everybody,

"Diesel is banned in Japan", we are told.

It's a legend. Diesel is highly regulated but not prohibited. I have been to Japan several times and have always found that there are Diesel vehicles and that there are GO pumps at all or almost all service stations.

The manufacturers offer Diesel vehicles on the Japanese market. Example at Mazda with the CX-5 which is offered in Diesel: the Skyactiv-D, and in petrol: Skyactiv-G. (D for Diesel and G for gasoline).



Link : http://www.cx-5.mazda.co.jp/grade/xd.html#base

Diesel cars are as expensive as the premium petrol. Users complain of overconsumption in urban areas and problems of blocked FAP. The GO automobile benefits from a reduction of 15 yen (0,11 €) per liter of fuel taxation. No big difference with what is happening with us except that the anti-pollution regulations are very strict and that the cops know how to enforce them. Basically it is Euro V and VI applied since the 70s.

Example of fuel prices (February 2014):



link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Truv2nbzuAk

153 yen for SP with a high octane rate, i.e. € 1,10
144 yen for SP with low octane or 1,03 €
121 yen for the GO, i.e. € 0,87

The Japanese complain about the high fuel prices in Japan.

ML

[Leo Maximus]

I lived for a while in Tokyo and there was a gas station nearby, at a crossroads. There was a Diesel pump, like everywhere in Japan. Diesel is absolutely not banned in Japan.

I found the geographical coordinates of this service station with Google Earth it is: 35 ° 38'30.86 N 139 ° 39'25.52 E

After a copy and paste of these coordinates in the input zone "Search" of Google Earth:



We are in Tokyo. We place the orange pedestrian of Street View at the coordinates of the crossroads:



And we land at the crossroads. The tree-lined street is called "Setagaya Dori". On the southwest side, there is the Idemitsu gas station, a Japanese oil tanker.



The price of the 3 available fuels is displayed on the light table at the top right of the station:



The "Diesel" automobile is 133 yen per liter.

I don't know when the photo was taken. The satellite date indicated is July 2013, 7 months ago but it does not generally correspond with the date of the photo. But you can see a Prius III in the petrol station. The photo is therefore relatively recent.

ML

[Macro]

Also try to find a truck manufacturer who sells a gasoline truck ... Aside from the gas engines of some city buses ...

[Leo Maximus]

The display panel seen more closely:



At the top of the panel it has the price per liter of the "regular" (written with 5 characters of the Japanese syllabary katakana: レ ギ ュ ラ -). Katakana is used for writing words of foreign origin, here it is English. Read in katakana it sounds like "ré-gui-ou-la-".

The regular is the SP with low octane rate (88 ~ 90): it is 152 yen or 1,08 €.

Underneath it has the high octane SP tariff (SP98 ~ 100) which is written ハ イ オ ク or "¨ha-io-kou" and reads "haï-oc". It comes from the English "hi-octane".

The high octane SP is 163 yen per liter or € 1,17.

At the bottom there is the 軽 油 which reads "keï-you". The characters are kanji, Chinese characters used by the Japanese for nouns or verbs. There is a Chinese reading or a Japanese reading, it depends on the text, it is complicated ... Here, it is a Chinese reading and "keï-you" means "light oil", the good old gasout, what ... The Japanese use more and more the English "Diesel Oil", it is more "class" .

The "Diesel Oil" is 133 yen per liter or 0,95 €. It benefits from a tax advantage of - 15 yen per liter or 0,11 €.

There is a lot of Diesel in Japan. Consumption for road transport should be around 15 million tonnes per year.

The prices are much lower than those charged with us. However, Japan is an importer, like France.

[Leo Maximus]

The logo of the Japanese "Diesel" with its two kanji:

[dirk pitt]

Regarding Tokyo, this is not a direct ban on Diesel but the fine particle rates authorized in Tokyo since 2003 effectively eliminates diesel not equipped with DPF.

[Leo Maximus]

Absolutely! Diesel vehicles have never been banned in Japan. But the anti-pollution standards are strict and are the same for all vehicles and the old Diesel have been phased out.

There are a few pages in French on the website of the Ministry of the Environment ( http://www.env.go.jp/fr/). We can read there: "Regarding the exhaust fumes from diesel cars, we have adopted the maximum standard worldwide and environmental measures which are considered to be pioneers in the world are continuing."

The site (quite remarkable) http://gogo.gs/ gives the fuel prices of all petrol stations in the country. With a few exceptions, there is gas oil everywhere, Ad-Blue, and also charging stations for electric cars with 2 powers and therefore 2 tariffs. (site in Japanese, sorry).



ML

[Leo Maximus]

Presentation on youtube of 6 Clean Diesel cars "ク リ ー ン デ ィ ー ゼ ル" sold in Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUGdnFOIqzY (2012 video in Japanese)

These are BMW, Mercedes and Mazda, all Diesel and automatic transmission:

BMW 523d ​​BluePerformance
BMW X3 BluePerformance
Mercedes ML350 BlueTec
Mercedes E350 BlueTec
Mazda Atenza SkyActiv
Mazda CX-5

PSA Hybrid4 is not available in Japan. While there are Diesel hybrids at Toyota (the Dyna).