Mazda Diesel Engine For U.S. Car Under Consideration

Mazda is still considering a diesel engine for the U.S. car market.

Mazda Motor Corp. CEO Masamichi KogaiMazda told Automotive News* in Japan that it is still considering a diesel for the U.S. car market. “We are not giving up,” Kogai said of the U.S. diesel to the publication at the July 14 reveal of the new 2017 Mazda3. “We have a timeline.”

Mazda had a diesel engine option ready to go – or so it thought – for the Mazda6 when it was introduced during its last redesign. However, the Mazda diesel was held out of the U.S. market for unclear reasons. Drivability and the ability of the diesel to beat the gasoline version of Mazda’s vehicles are the two suspected reasons. Unless a diesel can use less petroleum (not just in gallons of fuel, but in barrels of oil consumed per mile driven), meet or beat the performance of the gasoline engines already introduced, and also meet emissions controls requirements affordably, the engines make no sense.

Presently, there are no affordable diesel engines in the U.S. market that meet all of these requirements. It is unclear if there ever were any affordable diesel cars that topped the highest MPG gasoline cars in the segment. VW cheated to pass diesel emissions control testing, and no other automaker has put a diesel engine into an affordable mainstream car in the last five years other than Chevy. However, it is up for debate whether the Chevy Cruze diesel was greener or more cost effective than its gasoline trims. GM has had the engine off the market for a while. Its new 2016 Cruze gasoline engines have higher MPG than the outgoing 2015 Cruze diesel had.

It is also unclear what goal a Mazda diesel would achieve for the brand. Mazda is already ranked by the EPA as the U.S. market's first or second best brand in overall fuel economy and a diesel would not have a meaningful cost per mile or CO2 emissions advantage over its existing gasoline models.

Related Earlier Mazda Diesel Reports From Torque News:
2016 Toyota Tacoma & 2014 Mazda6 diesel decisions now make sense
Mazda confirms 2014 Mazda6 diesel for U.S. market (Later Cancelled)
Mazda reported to be working on diesel hybrids
Why can't the 2015 Mazda 6 diesel work in the US?

* Read the Automotive News Story here.