Detroit Touts Clean, Efficient Diesels; Consumers Aren't Sold
At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, it's not all hybrids and battery-powered cars. Some car companies are making significant investments in a fuel that's not new at all — diesel.
The newest diesel engines are far cleaner than their predecessors and they get many more miles per gallon. The question is, what's holding customers back from switching gas pumps?
When you look around the auto show there's a lot of energy and there's a lot of money being spent again. The one topic that keeps coming up, of course, is fuel economy.
"As you can see around the auto show, it's a major driver," says Scott Yackley, an assistant chief engineer at General Motors.
Yackley should know: For the past seven years or so he's been living and breathing fuel economy. He's one of the engineers who designed an engine for GM's all new midsize trucks, and it's a diesel.
GM is not the only car maker launching diesel trucks. Chrysler announced it is putting diesel into its Ram truck. And while the American car companies are rolling out diesel engines, Volkswagen is expanding its portfolio in the U.S. with second- and third-generation diesel.
"Diesel is our technology for fuel efficiency," says Oliver Schmidt, the head of engineering and environment with Volkswagen Group of America. Schmidt says diesel still has a bad reputation from a terrible try 30 years ago. He says people ask if diesel autos are loud or smelly.
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