CO129-581-16 British propaganda in Hong Kong 18-4-1939 - 29-10-1939 — Page 121

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British Cil Engines.

The rate of development in the use of the Diesel oil engine

This type

for road transport in Great Britain has been remarkable.

of engine was not introduced on a commercial scale into this country until some ten years ago; but at the present time there are well over 17,000 passenger vehicles in Great Britain using heavy oil as fuel, while the number of goods-vehicles propelled by heavy oil engines is only just short of 9,000. To-day all the principal British manufacturers of commercial vehicles are makers of oil engines, and in spite of the heavy wear to which this class of passenger and goods vehicle is subjected, it is estimated that such

before requiring vehicles can run a distance of 100,000 miles

a major overhaul.

160,000 kilometres

More and more British motor-makers are concentrating on the manufacture of Diesel-engined vehicles, and one firm now reports that four-fifths of the total number of engines built at its principal factory, in the period from October, 1938, to arch, 1959, were of the Diesel type. The factory is one of the largest of its kind in Great Britain and never before in its history has it built so great a proportion of oil engines, its normal output consisting both of petrol and oil engines. The sale of British oil engines is rapidly expanding not only in the home market, where fifty per cent of the larger passenger vehicles now use the Diesel engine, but also overseas, where freedom from engine trouble on bad roads is

of special importance.