propositum - intention, syfte, tema och mening

Presupposition # 12 – Diesel vs petrol cars

We have a lot of different words for them; beliefs, preconceived opinions, limitations set by oneself, values, attitudes towards something, expectations, theories, prejudices, views, axioms, generalizations et al. We don’t claim they’re all synonymous, however they’re all influencing marketing, investments, deals, and actually all decisions we as humans make. They’re all lying there affecting us conciously and unconsiously, whether we like it or not. The words mentioned, do have different meanings and some are broader and some are narrower. To find an umbrella term when discussing all of them is suitable and presupposition – from pre (before)-, sub (under)- and ponere (to place) is a really good term to describe all of the different words. Our presuppositions affect all of us to the extent that we almost don’t notice them
.

One example of this are the number of cars sold with diesel engines. In Sweden there were in January 2010 4 291 161 cars in use. Most of them were petrol cars and of course the whole infrastructure on e.g. petrol stations are build upon this fact . During 2006 there were 281 205 cars sold in Sweden. 220 002 were petrol cars i.e. 78% petrol cars
. But it has changed. During 2008 it was almost levelled out and during 2009, 179 109 cars were sold where 91 183 were diesels i.e

. 51%. From 22% diesels to 51 % diesels in three years – why is that? It’s not due to anything else than a changed attitude towards diesel cars among the Swedish population which now affects a lot of different areas. One very conspicuous thing are the line to the diesel pumps at the petrol stations since most often there is only one diesel pump and 4-6 petrol pumps at the stations…

The forecast for 2010 is that Sweden will sell more cars. Bertil Molden CEO of Car Sweden also mentions “…diesel cars have 30 % less consumtion and emit 20% less carbon dioxide. For the enviroment and for the fossil fuel it’s a win-win situation.”

What about the rest of EU? Diesel engines are prevalent and the Swedish market has been rare with the qouta of petrol vs diesel
. But according to the Telegraph it starts to swing in favor for petrol. Why? In this article there are a lot ot arguments why, and amongst others: “…In other words, because getting that extra diesel is more expensive and energy intensive, your diesel car might not be doing the environment any benefit at all…”

So who shall one trust and what shall one do – well it all boils down – as always – to your own presupposition!