With rising gas prices, fuel economic cars have become more popular. There seems to be a huge gap in the diesel car market however. There are only 5 diesel car models sold in the US.
- Volkwagen New Beetle
- Volkswagen Golf
- Volkwagen Jetta
- Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI
- Jeep Liberty
(Source: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/)
Two of these cars are among the five cars sold in the US that get a combined gas mileage of 40 mpg or better. The other ones are hybrids. Now i’m not much of a hybrid fan, the gas mileage on these vehicles has proven not to be a good as advertised. A diesel hybrid I can understand, it seems to be the best of both worlds
Now lets compare this with Europe, there over a 100 car models that get a combined gas mileage of 40 mpg or better, and not all of them are diesels. Some of these cars are:
- BMW 1-series (Diesel)
- Audi A6 (Diesel)
- Mercedes-Benz A-Class
- Ford Fusion
- Toyota Yaris (Available in the US as 2007 model)
- Mitsubishi Lancer
- Toyota Corolla (1.6 liter)
(Source: http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/)
There are many more, but I limited myself to a selection of cars available with automatic transmission, and brands sold in the US.
Now why are these diesel cars not sold in the US? Diesel available in the US has a high content of sulfur which makes European diesels fail the EPA allowed level of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), unless installed with an expensive soot filter. The previous EPA standard is 500ppm of sulfur in diesel, recently the standards have changed to 15ppm. This Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is currently being produced and should be available at retail outlets by 15 October 2006. The only drawback of having less sulfur in diesel is engine lubrication. A good additive/alternative for sulfur would be biodiesel or biodiesel/diesel mixture. Furthermore a new technology will ever further limit Nitrogen Oxide levels. The BLUETEC Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system will turn NOx into nitrogen and oxygen by injection urea, the main ingredient in urine. (Source: http://www.greencarcongress.com/)
So why are those European gasoline cars not available in the US? The European Toyota Corolla has a 1.6 VVT-i engine good for 42 mpg combined versus the American version with a 1.8 VVT-i engine doing 36 mpg combined. I guess American buyers feel they need more power and speed. The 1.6l Corolla with 95 HP, 115 mph top speed and 0-60 in just under 12 seconds seems hardly inadequate. I’m sure this has a lot to do with the mentality of cars buyers.
Hopefully in the next years more and more diesel cars will become available, as well as the small fuel economic European cars. I’m sure Americans will find out soon it’s better to brag about how much money you saved on gas then about who’s car can guzzle down the most fuel. And I hope B20 will become available (20% biodiesel, 80% regular (ULS) diesel) together with E85 (85% ethanol, 15% regular gasoline) even though the so called flex-fuel cars that can run on E85 need a modified. Any diesel car will run on biodiesel with little on no modifications.
Finally I would like YOU to the check it this great website I found about “Diesel Cars In the USA”. There is a lot of information about diesel cars. So check it out at: http://mydrive.roadfly.com/blog/ExJxZ3
