Diesel Keeps Picking Up New Fans

Just in time for the Memorial Day travel weekend that involve long-haul journeys for many Americans comes a reminder of the benefits of clean-diesel technology – one of which is the ability for a vehicle to go a long way on a tank of fuel, especially in highway-cruising mode.



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With that as the backdrop, one of America’s leading advocacy organizations for diesel technology is making the case that most of diesel’s expansion in the auto market is still ahead of it, not behind. More than 10 new clean-diesel cars and light-duty trucks will be introduced in the U.S. market in the next two years by Audi, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes and Volkswagen, notes the Diesel Technology Forum.

“The resurgence in new diesel autos in the U.S. market will greatly increase the popularity of clean diesels throughout the nation,” said Allen Schaefer, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Forum, in a news release.

Of course, Audi and Volkswagen have been at the forefront of the clean-diesel push in the U.S. market, with an increasing variety of clean-diesel versions of some of their most popular models comprising a rising portion of overall sales of those nameplates.

Audi also has been instrumental in pushing for positive popular perceptions of diesel power through TV advertisements and other means.

According to Schaeffer, the combination of capable and attractive diesel-powered cars, and advocacy of the technology, is working. Only 3 percent of U.S. sales so far are clean-diesel powertrains, compared with about half of all new sales in Europe.

But diesel has been running about neck-and-neck with U.S. hybrid sales even though there are many more hybrid models available. And diesel sales increased for each of the last two years and then rose again, by 35 percent, in the first quarter of 2012, the Forum said.

Clean diesel’s edge of 20 to 40 percent in fuel economy over gasoline has been increasingly relevant to Americans at a time of near-$4-a-gallon gasoline, Schaeffer noted. And “in many parts of the country, diesel fuel prices are at or below the cost of premium unleaded” that is required in many of today’s cars. “Diesel could well be the more economical choice.”