VW Golf TDI Hybrid: too expensive for America? {Autoblog Green}

Mar 12th 2008 2:05PM I own an older diesel and this always bugs me. I cannot think of many people who go 600 miles on a tank. Gas hybrid quoted fuel efficiency is always the best case scenario and tends to only be realized when you are driving down hill with the wind towards a magnet factory. I think the editors of consumer choice magazine own Toyota shares.

Diesel engines have been given an unfair wrap. Bluetec diesel engines have been approved for the U.S. and are just lower emission versions of decades old diesel engines. Besides, under the former emission standards, a diesel emits similar if not less pollutants per mile than gas. With the new technology and low sulfer fuel, the emission ratio is dropping.

Mercedes has diesel sedans here, VW is working on re-introducing a normal Diesel powerplant, and Audi and BMW are bringing diesel versions to the U.S..

I agree that the car company has to subsidize in order to break the market. Spreading the cost over more volume brings the unique cost of a diesel engine down to the price of the raw materials. It is still the same approximate amount of material just designed differently.

As for the cost of Diesel, it is the same. The price would drop if refineries would allocate more production to Diesel. Moreso, biodiesel costs are dropping to the current price of refined crude so the US could grow its own biofuels (and reduce the GDP drain of importing crude).

I want to see the US car companies embrace fuel efficiency for once. I wrote to Ford asking them if they were going to follow the Mercedes/VW/BMW/Audi trend and offer some of their european diesel engines in their US car models (like an Edge diesel). They answered that their considerable consumer research drives their products and they do not have intentions of bringing European cars to the U.S. What?!! Did you even read the question?!

I am looking forward to GM's efforts on ethanol and flex fuel platforms but they are lagging too.