Feel guilty driving a car in the face of climate change? If you own a European vehicle, chances are you can relax, at least a little bit. As any import car mechanic will tell you, most European vehicles are diesel, which is a cleaner engine that’s also more fuel efficient.
The Numbers and Reasons Behind US Auto Policies
Why aren’t more diesel vehicles produced in the US? It comes down to governmental policies, consumer demand, and fuel costs. But as this article in Popular Mechanics points out, you can expect that to change as fuel prices go up and consumers demand cheaper diesel alternatives.
“…hybrids are projected to become 9.5 percent of the passenger-car market by 2015 (up from 3 percent this year), yet diesels will grow to become just 3.5 percent of the car market here by 2015, up from less than 1 percent this year,” the article states. “However if the U.S. fuel prices take off more abruptly than analysts predict, we could see a deeper penetration of both diesel and hybrid vehicles.”
Audis, BMWs, and VWs are already increasing the diesel vehicles they import to the US, which is good news to our import mechanics.
