Diesel to Have Its Day in U.S., Proponent Says

By Jim Mateja
WardsAuto.com, Oct 20, 2011 8:53 AM

CHICAGO – The formula for diesel vehicle growth in the U.S. comes down to a simple equation.

As the number of auto makers selling diesels increases, the number of motorists buying them will increase, too, insists Jeff Breneman, executive director of the U.S. Coalition for Advanced Diesel Cars, which represents suppliers to diesel producers.

Breneman tells a meeting of the Midwest Automotive Media Assn. here this week that pending government legislation requiring auto makers to obtain 54.5 mpg (4.3 L/100 km) from their vehicle fleets by 2025 has helped stoke interest in oil-burners.

But, he adds, the fact European auto makers selling diesels in the U.S. have seen unexpected demand fueled by consumer concerns for great mileage and travel range between fill-ups has prompted other car manufacturers to offer diesels in the U.S. as well.

The list includes a Mazda6 diesel planned for 2012 and, more importantly, a diesel Chevrolet Cruze slated for 2013.

An offering from General Motors’ volume division gives the diesel credibility and endorses the engine as a viable alternative to hybrids or electrics, Breneman says.

“The fact that Chevy will offer a diesel Cruze in 2013 is huge,” he says. “The gas-powered Cruze will get 40 mpg (5.9 L/100 km), so the diesel is expected to get 50 mpg-plus (4.7 L/100 km), and that will make it a game-changer.

“Ford, Toyota or Honda haven’t got a diesel for the U.S. yet, but get ready for 2013-2014. That’s when we’re going to see a lot more diesels.”

Breneman says the key to growth is availability, and that will be favorably affected by more auto makers offering more diesel models here soon.

“When given a choice between a diesel- or gas-powered Jetta, 33% of motorists opt for the higher-mileage diesel. But when the supply of diesels is gone, it takes at least six to eight more weeks for the boat to arrive with a fresh supply,” he says, adding he hopes shortage issues will be solved with more players in the game.

The 54.5-mpg mileage standard is just one reason for future growth.

“Emission regulations are now about the same in Europe and the U.S., even California, so it makes it economically feasible for auto makers to develop one product for all those markets,” he says.

“And with the 54.5-mpg regulation coming in 2015, the auto makers have a 14-year window to invest the capital in diesels without U.S. regulations pulling the carpet out from under them.”

Another positive influence is infrastructure, with 80,000 U.S. service stations, or 52%, having a diesel pump.

By comparison, electrics require costly charging stations short distances from one another, and only about 1,000 are in place, Breneman says.

Fortunately, many consumers are too young to recall GM’s failed attempt at offering diesels in the 1980s, he adds.

“They don’t remember the GM experiment, but are old enough to recognize the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat (in diesel version) as great cars.”

Breneman insists diesels deserve a chance that the government has been reluctant to give them.

“We’ve had the flavor of the month from our government for decades,” he says. “Once it was going to be hydrogen fuel cells and a hydrogen highway, but that was proposed 11 years ago and where’s the first hydrogen-fuel-cell car? (ahem.... http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/ )

“There also was going to be ethanol cars and hybrid cars and electric cars. The government has always told us what technology it wanted, but what we are saying is. ‘Tell us you want 50 mpg fuel economy and let us decide the technology.’”

Source;
http://wardsauto.com/ar/diesel_have_day_111020/

Is the US ready to accept diesel?

By: Glenn Brooks, Monday, September 27, 2010, AutomotiveWorld.com "Hybrids are costly and although sales are strong in the US and Japan, globally they are not so successful. Of the 60 million vehicles built a year, just 1% are hybrids."

So said Mazda president and CEO Takashi Yamanouchi at the New York auto show earlier this year. With its sole hybrid model, the Tribute HEV, having recently been withdrawn from the US market due to disappointing sales, Mazda has been brave enough to address a situation many rivals remain in denial over. While no-one doubts the success of the Toyota Prius in both the US and Japan, this car is the sole exception to the global reality of hybrid vehicles being little more than pricey niche models.

Honda, Toyota's main rival in gasoline-electric technology, has tried to emulate the success of the Prius with its CR-Z, Insight and Civic Hybrid models. But with fewer than 5,000 Civic Hybrids and 15,000 Insights sold in the US in the first eight months of 2010, even American Honda would hesitate to label those numbers a good result.

It would be surprising if VW wasn’t planning to build diesel engines at its new Mexican powertrain plant.

Some of the reason why the fizz has gone out of US market hybrid sales is the end of tax credits for most brands. The cars are also typically high-priced and, with the weight of two propulsion systems onboard, are often none-too-economical in the freeway conditions typical of many owners' daily commutes.

Perhaps another, equally unseen factor is also contributing to declining hybrid sales: the US consumer's endless desire for novelty. Once seemingly everyone has a Prius it's time to find The Next Big Thing. Could that be diesel? The received wisdom that Americans dislike compression-ignition cars is outmoded as anyone who takes even a casual look at the recent sales figures for Volkswagen of America.

It is also worth noting the wording of VW's recent statement concerning its forthcoming 330,000/annum 'engine' plant that's due to come on stream in Silao, Mexico in 2013. No doubt the majority of engine production will be gasoline units but with sales of its diesel models rising rapidly in North America and all those TDI engines currently being imported from Europe, it would be surprising indeed if VW wasn't planning to also build diesels at Silao.

Volkswagen may have the diesel segment to itself for the foreseeable future

With 23% of its annual US sales already diesel and plans to lift its overall annual numbers to 800,000 vehicles by 2018, VW could even have much of this market to itself for the foreseeable future: neither General Motors, Ford, Toyota nor any other major player has plans to manufacture passenger car diesel engines in North America.

Until Volkswagen starts building diesel engines in Mexico and/or the US, we just don't know what the true potential for vehicles like the Jetta TDI (presently 25% of the car’s average 11,000 monthly sales in 2010) or Audi A3 TDI (fully 50% of sales in August) might be: much of the exchange rate volatility from imports of European engines is currently passed on to the US consumer in the form of high stickers for such models.

As the prices of diesel cars in the US market fall, as surely they will, so their popularity will grow. In the premium segment, the signs are already unmistakable. BMW, which had not offered a diesel in the US for 24 years, quietly introduced the 335d and X5 xDrive35d in 2009. Despite limited promotion, sales have surged. Lexus, the long time leading premium brand is no doubt already feeling alarmed, saddled as it is with slow-selling hybrids such as the HS 250h and LS 600h but without even one diesel offering: last month, BMW became the US market's number one premium brand.

Source;
http://www.automotiveworld.com/news/environment/83958-is-the-us-ready-to-accept-diesel

Diesel Deserves Better

Alot of people ask me about to update the diesel issue (more accurately, why there isn't a Honda diesel in the North American market), so I thought that this would be of interest to a few of you....
Love is blind. Environmental policy should not be.

Falling in love and being monogamous usually is a good thing, but when it comes to public policy, it should not be allowed.

Nowhere is it clearer than with the Obama Admin.’s head-over-heels infatuation with electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. It continues to lavish money and attention on everything electric while it appears to forsake all others that also can play a role in reducing U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions.

Incentives aimed at encouraging EV development and sales are crucial to their success, and we support them, but the U.S. government should not be settling down with only one technology just yet.

“I understand why political leaders have fallen in love with hybrids and electrics. But this may be the one time you’ll hear someone in Washington say it shouldn’t be a monogamous relationship,” says Johan de Nysschen, president-Audi of America.

Audi and parent Volkswagen AG have EVs and HEVs in the pipeline, but that doesn’t stop de Nysschen from dissing cars such as the Chevy Volt and declaring himself “the world’s biggest diesel advocate.”

De Nysschen’s point is that EVs are too expensive and impractical for the average consumer, and their widespread use is decades away. He adds that with most U.S. electricity generated by coal-fired power plants, EVs’ benefit to the environment is overrated.

Meanwhile, de Nysschen says diesels can provide big carbon-dioxide reductions almost immediately without big sacrifices by consumers.

Like most executives of auto makers based in Europe, de Nysschen is chagrined by diesel’s lack of acceptance in the U.S. About half of all new vehicles sold in Europe are powered by compression-ignition engines.

Because they are 25%-30% more efficient than comparable gasoline engines, diesels have had a profound impact on Europe’s fleet fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

Yet even though the newest diesels debuting in the U.S. on Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes vehicles are proving oil burners can meet California’s emissions regulations for oxides of nitrogen and particulates, the toughest in the world, the Obama Admin. can’t bring itself to introduce the “D word” into the public dialog on climate change.

Even worse, California air-quality regulators, who are aggressively pursuing local state initiatives to curb greenhouse gases, continue to devise new regulatory hurdles that hurt diesels rather than make them part of the solution.

As it stands now, the California Air Resources Board’s LEV III (low emissions vehicle) mandate will make it nearly impossible to sell diesel-powered vehicles in California beginning in 2014, just one new-product cycle away. Auto makers are hoping to convince CARB to bend.

After another round of Ward’s 10 Best Engines testing where we drove three incredibly good new diesels and named two to our 2010 list (as well as two HEVs), we have to insist the Obama Admin. back away from its singular devotion to electricity and at the very least tell CARB to moderate LEV III standards to accommodate diesels.

Long ago, Europe decided the fuel-economy and CO2-reduction benefits of diesel were more important than its drawback of higher NOx emissions. The Obama Admin. should do the same.

Love is blind. Environmental policy should not be.

Source;
http://wardsauto.com/commentary/diesel_deserves_better_091228/
By Drew WinterWardsAuto.com, Dec 28, 2009 9:51 AM