It looks like American drivers are starting to embrace diesel engines. A recent study conducted by HybridCars.com and Baum and Associates have shown a 27.5% increase in sales so far in 2012 over the previous car sales season. In the first six months of 2012, 61,214 diesel-powered vehicles that weren’t heavy duty diesel pickup trucks were bought in the United States. The study also showed that hybrid sales are up by a whopping 63.5% increase over the 2011 car sales.
Allen Schaeffer, the Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum comments about the study by saying, “The 27.5 percent increase reflects the emerging market for clean diesel automobiles in the United States. While clean diesel auto and light truck sales total about three percent of the total U.S. passenger car market, the steady double-digit monthly sales increases show a definite trend of interest in diesels. Despite some volatility in the auto market, clean diesel auto sales have increased in 22 of the past 23 months with double-digit increases in 20 of those months. And diesel auto sales increased by more than 30 percent in 12 of these months. While this is significantly less than the 50 percent diesel sales rate in Europe, it does indicate that Americans are taking a renewed interest as more diesels are being introduced into the U.S. market. With more than 15 new clean diesel models designated for the U.S. in the next two years, I fully expect diesel sales to increase even more extensively in the near future.”
Rising fuel prices and stronger fuel economy regulations are what is stimulating the increase in diesel and hybrid vehicles according to a recent study done by Pike research. This study forecasts that sales of clean diesel vehicles will continue to increase from 9.1 million in 2012 to 12.1 million a year by 2018. Clean diesels are expected to represent 12.4% of all light duty vehicles.
All of the automakers are taking these studies seriously by planning to produce diesel and hybrid versions of their most popular models.
News Source: Baum and Associates