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There are certain questions that must be asked pretty much every time journalists get in the same room as senior auto-industry executives. Thanks to Volkswagen’s cheatin’ heart, the future of diesel passenger cars on both sides of the Atlantic is one of them.
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After speaking to senior executives from both BMW and Mercedes-Benz at the Geneva auto show, it appears the divide is set to grow, with compression ignition having a long-term future in Europe but with prospects on our side of the Atlantic looking much less rosy.
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“In the United States, [diesel] has always been a small minority,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales and marketing, told Car and Driver. “Interestingly, a lot of people who bought diesel in the U.S. were Europeans living in America, and they were very enthusiastic about it. But I don’t see diesel picking up in the passenger-car market in the U.S. I think it’s unlikely to have much of a future ahead of it.”
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Although Robertson admitted to being frustrated by differing emissions standards in different European countries and by the fact that some of them “class all diesels the same, whether [they are] Euro 6 compliant or 25 years old,” he said BMW predicts diesels will continue for the foreseeable future, gradually being replaced by gasoline plug-in hybrids as standards tighten.
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Dieter Zetsche, head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, is in broad agreement. “The progress that has been made with combustion engines is amazing,” he told journalists at Geneva. “In that area, the differences between a modern diesel and a gas engine are very limited. Obviously, in the U.S., if we talk about passenger cars and light trucks, the diesel has never played a significant role—that probably won’t change. In Europe it does, and more and more without a downside, with their more modern emission levels.”
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Given the excellence of next-generation diesel engines like Mercedes-Benz’s new four-cylinder and BMW’s mighty 3.0-liter six, that’s a huge shame.
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