Diesel Vs Petrol
Diesel Vs Petrol
Diesel Vs Petrol
While these are important for long term ownership, what about the performance and driving
experience offered by petrol and diesel engines? In the debate between petrol vs diesel, we will
analyze which is the better option if you are focused more on performance than efficiency.
The readiness of petrol to ignite translates to a petrol engine requiring lower compression ratios
and instead relying on a spark plug to combust the air-fuel mixture. Diesel, on the other hand,
requires the cylinder to compress the air to the point where injecting diesel fuel instantly
combusts the air-fuel mixture. This is why a diesel engine has a higher compression ratio as it
compresses a larger volume of air per cylinder to ensure the fuel can be used for combustion.
In petrol engines, on the other hand, the power builds in relation to the revs. Therefore more
usable power is available for a longer amount of time. It’s extremely satisfying chasing the needle
to the red line on a petrol car, but even if you’re not going for it, it’s impossible to ignore the
surplus usable power you have over a similar diesel. So if you do say words like “POWER” every
time you put your foot down on the throttle, you will have a more satisfying experience driving a
petrol car.
To put this into perspective, we compare the 2015 Honda City’s petrol and diesel variants against
each other. Though the diesel variant has a higher torque than the petrol, it does so at a lower
RPM due to which shifting is necessary sooner than that on the petrol. Thus the petrol produces
more power and accelerates from 0 to 100 quicker.
In a diesel car, the maximum torque is available at lower revs, so you can change up earlier or
use a higher gear at lower speeds. The low-end torque is great for carrying heavy loads, but
requires frequent gear changes while driving in the city to make use of the torque. On the other
hand, petrol cars require fewer gear changes in comparison as a petrol engine maintains its
power for longer.
But there is no substitute for a test drive. Don’t just look at the performance and economy figures
on a piece of paper. Once you drive both a petrol and diesel car, you will have a better idea
about the responsiveness of the engine as well as its suitability to your driving style and needs.
When this is taken into consideration, diesel engines are the more powerful of the two. If you are
looking to go off-roading or will be carrying heavy loads, a powerful diesel engine would provide
the power you need. Petrol engines are not far behind, but when it comes to power as a metric,
they lose out to diesel engines.
Effective RPM: Petrol engines provide power on more of the RPM band while diesel
engines provide most of their power on the lower range of the RPM band.
Fuel Efficiency: Petrol engines use more fuel to produce more power while diesel
engines use more air to increase compression and burn the fuel more effectively.
Drivability: Diesel engines provide better acceleration while petrol engines provide
better top speed
Maintenance: Due to the nature of combustion, diesel engines have a higher
maintenance cost as compared to petrol engines.
Confused whether the premium paid for that diesel car will pay off or not? Read here to find
out: Petrol vs Diesel: Efficiency and Cost of Running Compared.