Diesel When Rudolf Diesel unveiled his four-stroke engine back in 1897, the still embryonic history of the automobile took a whole new course. Diesel engines are more efficient than their petrol equiva- lents, burn less fuel in devel oping the same performance and work at lower revs – major benefits when your business is moving large, heavy machines around. Plus, diesel engines come in almost any size. Diesel has therefore become a ubiqui tous feature of the transport land- scape, with vehicles powered by the fuel growing ever more efficient over the course of the past 100 years. But despite all this, the threat of extinction looms. Earlier this year, Euro pean lawmakers agreed emis sions goals for heavy-duty commercial vehicles: if nothing changes, the sale of almost all new diesel trucks will be phased out by 2040. The fuel tanks of diesel trucks for short-dis- tance transport can hold 200 – 300 liters and their long-distance equivalents up to 1,000 liters. To speed up refueling times, the flow rate of truck pumps is much higher than for passenger cars. Gebrüder Weiss operates four of its own filling stations in Austria and one in Germany.
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