Cars equipped with diesel engines now comprise half of all new cars sold in Europe. The main reason for their popularity is fuel economy: a medium-sized diesel car can easily achieve a city fuel consumption of better than 6 litres/100km and on a highway, 4 litres/100km.

This BMW 3-litre in-line 6-cylinder diesel uses twin turbochargers. It develops 200kW at 4400 RPM and a staggering 560Nm at 2000 RPM, with no less than 530Nm available from 1500 RPM. The twin overhead cam, iron block and alloy head design uses four valves per cylinder and has a mass of 228kg. Bosch DDE 6.0 engine manage- ment is used with common rail injection. [BMW]

Even the very high power diesel passenger car engines now available have exceptional fuel economy for their size and performance.

The BMW 535d, equipped with a twin-turbo 3-litre diesel engine developing 200kW of power and 560Nm of torque, accelerates to 100km/h in just 6.5 seconds and has an EU combined cycle fuel economy of 8l/100km.