General Motors has quietly stopped building diesel-powered cars for the U.S. market.
Steven Majoros, marketing director for cars and crossovers for General Motors Chevrolet Division, said GM halted production of the diesel-powered Chevrolet Cruze at its assembly complex in Lordstown, Ohio, this past October when it switched over the new version of the Cruze.
“We have plans to offer a diesel option again. But we haven’t said when,” said Majoros, adding the final decision could rest on the impact of the fallout of Volkswagen scandal on regulators and consumers.
Other carmakers are also quietly getting out of the diesel market, at least temporarily.
(Automakers, U.S. regulators set to announce deal for improved safety. For more, Click Here.)
Ola Källenius, the Board of Management member responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales, indicated that Mercedes was prepared to de-emphaisze the sale of diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. even though it has developed a newly designed diesel engine for the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class that will meet the tougher emission standards that are now looming.
While diesel-powered passenger cars are common in Europe where diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline demand for diesel-powered cars in the U.S. is significantly smaller, accounting for less than 5% of the brand’s total sales.
(Click Here for details about Sergio Marchionne’s plans for FCA’s debt-free future.)
The volume is unlikely to grow in the wake of scandal, he added. “We have a clientele for diesel, but it’s a niche market in the U.S.,” Kallenius said.
Volkswagen and Audi executives made a point of using their press conferences during the Detroit Auto Show to apologize to their customers about diesel scandal. “The diesel exhaust issue has been unfortunate situation that we are 100 percent behind getting this issue resolved,” said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG.
(To see more about Audi and its plans, Click Here.)
Herbert Diess, head of the Volkswagen brand, also said VW was “sorry” that the scandal had hurt VW customers in the United States. “We’ve let down our dealers and customers,” he said. “We are truly sorry about that. We are committed to making things right,” Diess said.
Production has stopped, but this article does not address the reason.
The Reason?
Quite likely, diminishing demand.
Volkswagen’s sneaky end-run around regulations has put the spotlight and consequently, a bull’s eye target on Diesels of virtually all passenger-car manufacturers. Regardless of actuality, Diesels are still perceived as dirty, smelly vehicles. And the appearance of the Diesel pump nozzle ate filling stations simply furthers that perception. (Most Diesel pump nozzles are filthy-looking, covered with gooey black smut; many women won’t dare touch them. “No way can that nasty stuff burn clean.” )
Thankfully diesel customers are smarter than the car companies so diesel owners will continue to buy clean diesel vehicles from whomever provides them. There is going to be one huge volume of older clean diesels on U.S. roadways over the next 25+ years as smart people are not going to give up their prized diesel. Obama and the EPA can go to Hell in a hand basket and they probably will for all the damage they have imposed on society.
(1) True hybrids like the 2015 Prius get ~65% better MPG in the city, 51 MPG, over even cheat-diesels like the 2015 Jetta TDI, 31 MPG.
(2) True hybrids like the 2015 Prius get parity MPG on the highway, 48 MPG, at the same speeds as the Jetta TDI cheat-diesel, 45 MPG.
(3) Diesel costs more at ~$2.18/gal versus regular at $2.00/gal.
(4) Today, January 12, 2016, anyone can buy a new, 2016 Prius but not a new, 2016 Jetta TDI because VW thought the EPA tests were just ‘practice’.
(5) Gas pumps are busy and earn money but a diesel pump takes up space for very few and far between customers.
(6) True hybrids like the new, 2016 Prius don’t need extra service calls to refill a urea tank.
(7) Diesel was $2.31/gal when President Obama took office and is now cheaper, $2.18.
Bob Wilson, Huntsville, AL
Bob-
You seem unable to handle the reality that most consumers don’t want a Prius,other hybrid or EV. Consumers are voting with their wallet. Your distorted view of reality and cheap shots about VW show your ignorance and inability to address the issues instead of talking smack. People around the world buy clean diesels because they are practical, not over-priced and they are reliable. If consumers felt hybrids were as good, then they’d buy hybrids instead of clean Diesels, but most don’t.
Your distorted views aren’t going to change reality. You’ll just remain biter and continue hyping a product few people will buy. People buy what makes them happy not what makes YOU happy.
I’ve been driving a diesel since 1983. Switched from Mercedes to VW in 2012 because MB just didn’t have one. This motor really is much better suited to everyday driving, and I’m getting over 40 mpg in town and 45 – 55 mpg on the highway depending on whether I’m driving 65 or 80 mph. Its a shame what GM (1980’s) and VW (now) have done to stop acceptance here. Now that technology exists (hear that, VW?) to keep NOX out of the air, its the logical choice (as it is in my 2nd home town of Palermo, Italy where 80% of cars are diesel).
Fred-
VW the corporation didn’t cheat, a group of rogue engineers and programmers fooled VW management, it’s 650,000 employees and the world. That being said the actual excess NOx spewed by all VWs world wide would not harm anyone.
I worked up the numbers a month or so back and if you took the TOTAL emissions from ALL clean diesel powered cars in the U.S. – not just the trivial “excess” emissions that exceeded the .3 of a gram per mile EPA mandate (the lowest in the world only surpassed by CARB’s .2g/m), then the legal NOx emissions from clean diesel trucks in the U.S., which truly are clean, is 140 TIMES more than what ALL clean diesel passenger cars in the U.S. emit annually. Thus there is absolutely no way possible the trivial “excess” NOx which is infinitesimal in volume, could have possible hurt anyone. You don’t hear the truth form the media or EPA, you hear the self-serving sensationalism that makes it sound like VW the corporation did something evil. Compare VW’s trivial excess exhaust emissions to GM’s KILLING of 100+ people via a defective ignition switch and cover-up – yet the Feds and the media looked the other way. Yellow journalism is alive and evil in the U.S.
I am all for punishing those responsible for the illegal software, but don’t be deceived by the technically challenged media who has an agenda to persecute VW for profit. The EPA is out of control with the U.S. being the only country in the world threatening VW with BILLIONS in fines for a totally insignificant exhaust emissions violation. Every other country is mandating that VW fixed the vehicles, which is a simple software update for most and a $11 part for the earlier 1.6/1.9L diesels.
Germany is looking to collect a small amount of fuel tax from the slightly higher mpg/CO on the 1.4L engine that the published mpg was slightly low on, but no one except the U.S. is trying to persecute VW. Can you imagine any country but the U.S. with 400+ class action lawsuits over a trivial emissions issue? The gold digging scum in the U.S. (the land of litigation), crawl out from under rocks when they smell an opportunity to steal from people. These people are despicable!