Despite the dismal news bestowed upon us regarding Chrysler, Ford, and GM’s light-duty diesel truck programs over the past couple of months, let us not forget the importance of torquey oil burners in the heavy-duty segment. This past week, Ford introduced its first-ever in-house-designed diesel engine, codenamed Scorpion, a 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 set to bow in the 2011 F-Series Super Duty and rumored to be the result of Ford’s priciest engine program in company history.
In a lengthy official press release that calls attention to the compacted graphite iron engine block with aluminum heads and the unique inboard exhaust architecture, among other Scorpion engineering and durability highlights, Ford tells us its new diesel will be B20 (20-percent biodiesel blend) compatible, making the Detroit Three’s respective heavy-duty diesel offerings (GM has its upcoming LML Duramax for 2011, Chrysler has its 6.7-liter Cummins for 2010) fully B20-compliant. While biodiesel fueling stations may not exist at every street corner and a large segment of the population may not recognize what B20 is, Ford bringing its latest diesel to compliancy is a wholehearted reminder that our finite supply of fossil fuels will not be around forever.
Automakers have progressively improved their fuel-economy figures and cut down on emissions, but ultimately, every single driver who plans on driving for the next couple decades is staring down the same barrel. Ideally, emitting nothing into our environment is the best case scenario (re: electric and fuel cells). For now, biofuels will continue to labor in the background of the alternative fuel scene, providing us with a stopgap until our electric and fuel-cell trucks arrive.