GM not focusing on U.S. diesels

[bmer]

Despite rising fuel prices and stricter CAFE standards, General Motors is not expecting widespread demand for diesels in the U.S. in the coming years. Several German automakers are banking on the U.S.' acceptance of diesel-powered cars, but GM will continue to develop its diesels mainly for overseas markets.

“Frankly in the United States, with diesel fuel the same price as gasoline, I don’t think that many Americans are going to pay a $3,000 or $4,000 premium for a modern diesel engine,” GM chairman Bob Lutz told The Car Connection.

The $3,000 to $4,000 premium on diesels over gasoline engines is due to the increased amount of emissions equipment needed to make a diesel-powered car 50-state legal.

Lutz explained that diesel are so popular in European countries, such as Germany, because of the way fuel is taxed. "Gasoline is $8 per gallon, diesel fuel is $4 per gallon, with that kind of price disparity everyone is going to buy a diesel,” he said.

Because there is a lack of motivation for U.S. consumers to make the switch to diesel, Lutz predicts that the U.S. market for diesels will resemble that of Switzerland, where the taxing structure is similar to ours. Diesel-powered cars make up about 8% to 10% of the market there.

Instead, Lutz says that ethanol-powered FlexFuel vehicles are a much better solution than clean diesels. “Nothing we can do in the next five or 10 years gets even close to that kind of impact,” he said. GM currently has over 1 million FlexFuel vehicles on the road and announced a new partnership with Coskata — a maker of ethanol fuel — at this year's Detroit Auto Show. Look for GM to also use smaller turbocharged engines in the future.

 

[siko]

The US according to Lutz: ethanol, yes, diesels, not so much

In the fuel economy and future tech debate, the hybrid vs. diesel vs. hydrogen fuel cells vs. smaller cars and smaller engines always provokes a fair bit of discussion among Autoblog commentators. At this point, no one yet knows what's going to win since nobody knows how the volatile mix of products, timelines, prices, regulations, legislation, state standards, and gas prices will ultimately pan out. Bob Lutz's prediction is that diesels, at least as far as the US is concerned, won't be much of a factor.

His reasoning is simple: "I think customers are going to say, 'Wait a minute. At equal fuel prices I'm paying $4,000 more for this." Unlike many countries in Europe, the US offers no incentive for people to buy diesels. In the States the price of a diesel vehicle is often more than $1,000 higher than that of a gasoline-engined car, and diesel fuel is just as expensive as gas (throughout California and other states, it's slightly more expensive than premium unleaded). In that case, Lutz's opinion is that just about all the customer will glean from an oilburner is a higher car payment.

Lutz sees diesel uptake in the US hovering at about eight-percent. The technology he sees as winning the day: ethanol. It's clean, it's easy to integrate into the refueling infrastructure, and it "doesn't require a change in consumer behavior." (Except for the people in emerging markets who've seen the price of corn skyrocket.) For another take on the fuel economy battle, according to Kelly Blue Book, 40-percent of US new car shoppers think hybrids are the future, with just 17-percent citing flex-fuel.

[Source: The Car Connection]

 

[Merc1]

He may be right. In my area diesel costs more than even premium.

M