Diesels haven’t been wildly popular in America in a very long time. Images to soot-covered cars still exist in the minds of older Americans and younger Americans are more into what’s eco-friendly and hemp t-shirts. So when Volkswagen’s diesel scandal hit, many were quick to assume, and rightfully so, that the diesel engine in America would soon be dead. However, BMW doesn’t feel that way and says that there’s currently a good enough demand to warrant diesel engines here, so the Bavarians will sell them as long as the demand remains.
BMW’s Global Head of Diesel-Engine Development recently spoke with Car and Driver about the issue and claimed that public perception is more key than the technical standpoint. “For passenger cars, if there is enough customer demand we will offer it,” said Steinparzer, “because technically, the solution to meet regulatory demands, we have it.”
After the Volkswagen scandal, the EPA and CARB also looked into other German brands, including BMW, and all other brands’ diesel engines checked out. So BMW’s engines will pass US emissions regulations with flying colors. The difficulty with brining them here is getting the public to want them. In fact, Steinparzer went on to say that BMW likes the US’ emissions regulations more than Europe’s, as they’re more accurate here.
BMW will be selling three crude-oil models in 2017: BMW 328d, BMW X3 xDrive28d and the BMW X5 xDrive35d, the latter two will be being brought back this year. So as long as there is customer demand, BMW will continue to sell diesel engines here in the ‘States. Hopefully, Americans can see the positives of diesel engines and we might get even more of BMW’s cool diesels here, like the monster quad-turbo engine that gets me all giddy just thinking about it.
[Source: Car and Driver]
