Why Are Many Diesel Cars Not Available in the U.S.?

With all the talk today about fuel efficiency and reducingemissions, you would think that more diesel powered cars would be available forpurchase in the United States. Along with O2 Sensors, Air Fuel Ratio Sensors, and newultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, new diesel cars are not only very clean but getexcellent gas mileage.  So why don’t wesee more of them?

Diesel powered cars are popular around the globe, especiallyin Europe where diesel gas is often less expensive. There are many European carmakers that produce diesel cars for their European markets, but they seldommake it to U.S. shores. This is mostly due to automakers reluctance to bringdiesel cars to the U.S. because of low demand. 

2012 VW Passat

Diesel cars do not have the best reputation in America. Twentyyears ago (or more), diesels were noisy, clunky, and produced a thick cloud ofsmoke whenever you pressed down on the gas pedal. They also rarely passedemissions testing, especially in ultra-strict California. Today’s diesels areworlds apart from their ancestors, but the poor qualities associated with thempersist in public minds. 

In addition to already poor attitudes toward diesels, thegreat qualities of new generation diesels are often overlooked. Despite gettingsimilar gas mileage and often better emissions than hybrid vehicles, it’susually the hybrid sector that gets the most press for being green.  This is in spite of the fact that thebatteries used in hybrid vehicles are full of toxic and carcinogenic materialsthat are downright hazardous to obtain. Chalk it up to good marketing on behalfof the hybrid car industry, and a lack of marketing dollars spent on pimpingdiesel cars as the new ultra-green hybrid alternative.

2012 Audi Q7 TDI

The last major obstacle in an increased demand for dieselcars here is the heavier tax levied on diesel fuel. Typically the price ofgasoline is about 18% federal and state taxes – with diesel fuel it’s about25%. This is due to outdated tax code and results in higher prices for dieselfuel at the pump: although owners may get much better gas mileage, they arestill paying more per gallon. This can offset thebenefit of fuel efficiency to the consumer.

With gas prices soaring, public attitudes are beginning tocome around. In 2012 VW released the Passat, Jetta, and Golf TDI, BMW releasedboth 3 Series diesels and the X5 XDrive 35d, and Audi released the A3 TDI andQ7 TDI.  If this trend continues we mayget a decent selection of diesel engines available in the U.S., and if we’relucky, new legislation to make taxes on diesel vs gasoline more fair. Withgreater awareness of the benefits plus some serious marketing push byautomakers, more diesel-powered cars can definitely be in our future.

BMW M Diesels

If you live in the states you’re not going to have to worryabout replacing a diesel injector or a diesel turbocharger for your new BMWM550d, because this car not going to be available for sale in the U.S.  Also not available is the other M Diesel carsthat BMW just announced; the X5 M50d, and the X6 M50d. You can go ahead and addthese vehicles to a long line of sweet rides available to rest of the world,but not available to us.

Ok… I have calmed down. I am no longer upset, and haverealized that even if I had the opportunity to buy one of these, I couldn’tafford it anyways.  So, instead ofwhining about not having one of these great cars, let’s discuss what makes themso great. Each one has all-wheel drive and is powered by what BMW callsPerformance Twin Turbo technology.  “TwinTurbo Technology,” Ha! These cars actually have three turbos.  Two smaller turbochargers deliver responsivepower down low in the rpm range, and then there is a bigger turbo that addstop-end thrust. The engine is a 3.0-litre inline six, which has 381-hp.  The M-Diesels will all go from 0 to 62-mph inless than 5.4 seconds, and gas mileage will range from 36.7 to 44-mpg.

The cars also get the M treatment on the outside of thevehicles too.  This includes side mirrorsand vent bars with a grey metallic finish. The exhaust is highlighted with trapezoidal tips, there is high-glossshadow line trim, and alloy wheels ranging from 19 to 20 inches.

No pricing was announced, and the vehicles will be debutedat the Geneva Motor show in March.

Oil: The Creator of Many Fuels

It may not be very surprising that Volvo’s V60 Plug-inHybrid was originally set to target the European market. North Americans as awhole strongly prefer gasoline powered vehicles over diesel (equipped withdiesel fuel pumps and diesel injectors). They also usually prefer SUVs overwagons. But what is the difference between diesel and gasoline, and why do weprefer gas?

There are chemical differences between the two as they areboth derived from oil at very different temperatures, but I won’t bore you withthat. The main reason that American’s tend to prefer gasoline over diesel,although diesel engines get better gas mileage, is because gasoline burns muchcleaner. Diesel engines are also known to be much louder. Because gasolineengines have a low compression ratio they require spark plugs to ignite thefuel. In addition to a spark plug they need electrical support from an electriccoil, a distributor, and an alternator. A diesel engine has a much highercompression ratio and creates enough heat to ignite the fuel at injection, thereforeeliminating the need of a spark plug and additional electricalsupport.  Both engines create energy in afour stage process (although differently): the intake stroke, the compressionstroke, the combustion stroke, and the exhaust stroke.

In the past years there have been many improvements in dieseltechnology and it is being used more commonly than it has before. In regards toVolvo’s diesel wagon, they have recently announced the XC60 plug-in hybrid asthe gasoline alternative and it will be headed to US markets soon. Thisvehicle can travel up to 35 miles running on just electricity and is said to get about100mph in Hybrid mode. What’s more important to you, better gas mileage or loweremissions?