How are hybrid sales in Europe?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by MrWillys

Drover,
You are correct that the NOX requirement in the US is more stringent, but not all emission standards are equal and as a whole European standards are higher. This hasn't stopped VW, and BMW from bringing in diesel models. The problem is cost, the US perception of diesel, and our cheap tax payer subsidized gas. The perception of eco is selling Japanese hybrids though. The payback of savings for the diesel is much longer here, because of this cheap price of fuel. This is similar to the introduction of Japanese cars. No one cared until the gas crisis in 73 and further compounded in 79. Blaming this solely on NOX is nuts, because there's many other factors to be considered. Who would have thought 30 years ago we'd be driving diesel trucks? Shouldn't VW be getting praise for their accomplishments rather worrying about US standards? Is clean air a bad thing? Alter peoples perceptions, and they will buy them.

Today, too many want to make issues like this political. Remember the sick and dead in Denora, PA in 1948 that started a lot of this awareness had both party support, and signed by Ike.

"As a whole European standards are higher" may be true when considering the big picture that includes such things as coal-fired power plants and waste incineration facilities where we have the luxury of wide-open spaces that allows us to place such things away from major population centers and minimize the impact to the overall public health. But that's not particularly relevant to this discussion. Automotive emissions controls have historically been considerably more stringent here than in Europe on account of different philosophies of how to address the situation (USA = clean up the tailpipe emissions; Europe = discourage consumption and consequent pollution by taxing the hell out of automotive fuel) which is why we often got de-tuned versions of engines in European models, or didn't get some engine options at all (and in some cases we still don't, particularly diesels). It's only been relatively recently that emissions standards in Europe have become equivalent to our own.

While it hasn't stopped VW and BMW from bringing in diesel models, it hasn't been without issues. Volkswagen has had to pay out a significant number of very expensive warranty claims related to diesel fuel pumps disintegrating and sending bits of shrapnel up the fuel line. And BMW has had a low take rate on diesels here, I'd speculate in part because of the additional cost over comparable petrol models and in part because a diesel motor doesn't fit well with the "performance/driving experience" marketing angle that BMW has fostered here for decades. And like most manufacturers, BMW is only able to meet U.S. emissions standards on their diesel models by adding a urea injection system, which of course adds cost and complexity not to mention the need to keep the urea reservoir full, as the car will refuse to run if it's empty. And it certainly has stopped others from offering diesels here; Mazda for instance has delayed the introduction of a diesel 6 and CX-5 at least twice; Subaru announced in 2011 they would begin offering diesel engines in the USA but they're not here yet.

Whether or not you believe our higher diesel emissions standards are good public policy, it has unarguably contributed to the near-total absence of diesel cars here which in turn has given hybrids a huge opening to corner the efficient powertrain market.

[Pruzhany]

Hybrids? What Hybrids?

I was in the vicinity for the past and drove a Isuzu Dmax 4x4 fully loaded with a diesel engine and it out performed its sister truck the Chevy Colorado in every way.