Volkswagen will never sell another diesel in the U.S. - Polidicks

[quote]Finally ending over a year’s worth of speculation, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has confirmed the brand will never again offer a diesel-powered car in the United States. The company isn’t allowed to sell oil-burning engines here, but many believed it would give the technology another shot in a couple of years’ time. Instead, Volkswagen is putting an unprecedented focus on electrification. It’s currently developing a modular platform named MEB designed specifically to underpin battery-powered models, and it boldly promises to put no less than a million electric cars on the road by the year 2025. Christian Senger, the head of the brand’s e-mobility division, told Digital Trends that Volkswagen ultimately wants to become the leader in electrification. Giving up on diesel technology significantly complicates Volkswagen’s long-rumored return to the commercial vehicle segment in the U.S. The Amarok pickup truck and the Caddy van can get by with only a gasoline-burning engine, but anything bigger needs a turbodiesel under the hood to be competitive. Volkswagen is experimenting with an electric version of the full-size Crafter van, so the commercial vehicle offensive could come with a charging cord — assuming it’s still in the pipelines. The decision to stop selling diesels in the U.S. also applies to the company’s Audi brand — with one exception. The diesel-powered A3 is dead for good, and the U.S.-spec version of the A4 TDI was canceled well before it hit showrooms due to a lack of demand, but the compression ignition engine still makes sense in some segments of the market. “Once we hopefully get past everything, I see an opportunity for potentially, probably to offer it on one model, and that model would probably be the Q7 SUV,” said Audi of America president Scott Keogh in an interview with Reuters. He didn’t reveal when we might see a Q7 with a turbodiesel engine under the hood in a U.S. showroom.[/quote] [url]http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/volkswagen-gives-up-on-diesel-news-quotes-details/[/url] [url]http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-strategy-idUSKBN13H0OE[/url]

God dammit

Yeah they know they fucked up and are going all green up in here. That's a risk they wouldn't have taken if not for the recent scandal. Funnily enough this might turn out really really good for them.

I don't see it as a bad thing, they are focusing on 100% electric now.

Good.

Just in time for Mazda to just start selling their new CX-5 with a diesel engine in the US.

[QUOTE=MR-X;51417824]Just in time for Mazda to just start selling their new CX-5 with a diesel engine in the US.[/QUOTE] The Tiguan was a piece of shit anyways.

Good job Volkswagen, ya blew it. At least they've decided to focus on electrics instead of picking up their ball and going home.

Heh, rbreslow is pissed about this one

Just hope this doesn't cause them to go under. A move like that failing could potentially put electric vehicles in a bad light.

Goodbye VW sales. Up in Canada the only ones on the road are TDI VW's because they're "fuckin mutant" on fuel and "damn near indestructible" My cousin has a 2003 Jetta and it gets 50mpg I think, has 450k km on it as well and runs like a top!

[QUOTE=Tinter;51418174]Just hope this doesn't cause them to go under. A move like that failing could potentially put electric vehicles in a bad light.[/QUOTE] What a world we live in, where cheating is success and taking risks is failure.

God damn I was hoping to get a VW Jetta or Passat with diesel some day. My previous employer had a 2012 diesel and drove it to Georgia, it got like 50 miles to the gallon. I love the simple look of them. Not a lot of automakers use such a simplistic but pleasing style. VW seems to be going for the 'electric cars have to look like a failed abortion' look so this is unfortunate.

Good. Even the cleanest of Diesels are still absolutely filthy in terms of particulate matter and NOx emissions. The less Diesels on the road, the better. The only road vehicles that should have Diesel engines are trucks and other utility vehicles. Petrol engine cars may use slightly more fuel (but even then, Audi's cylinder-on-demand option for the A3 has fuel consumption comparable to equivalent Diesel engines), however, exhaust gasses from modern petrol cars can literally be cleaner than the air in some cities around the world.

That's a shame, diesel powered cars are wonderful.

[QUOTE=LtKyle2;51418706]God damn I was hoping to get a VW Jetta or Passat with diesel some day. My previous employer had a 2012 diesel and drove it to Georgia, it got like 50 miles to the gallon. I love the simple look of them. Not a lot of automakers use such a simplistic but pleasing style. VW seems to be going for the 'electric cars have to look like a failed abortion' look so this is unfortunate.[/QUOTE] It looks like VW is about to get serious on EVs though and are going to be making some serious investments that no one but Tesla has in the industry so far. But it's probably going to take until 2019 before they release anything decent.

[QUOTE=Morgen;51419093]It looks like VW is about to get serious on EVs though and are going to be making some serious investments that no one but Tesla has in the industry so far. But it's probably going to take until 2019 before they release anything decent.[/QUOTE] If they just stripped the gas and diesel engines from a Jetta or Passat and threw in a electric powertrain I'd be happy. That's pretty much what Ford is doing with the Focus.

Gawd damnit, VW.

I'm not surprised. Americans have never really been all that welcoming to the use of diesel engines in daily drivers to begin with and any progress they may have made towards changing that, towards passing out of the American Carbuyer's mind the memories of GM's attempts in the 80s, of clattery and noisy 3/4 ton and 1 ton pickups spewing acrid clouds every time they're loaded down, all went up in smoke with the emissions scandal. What's truly funny is they were still burning cleaner in cheat mode than those old GM diesel V8s ever did :v:

I feel bad for VW, being forced into such a corner by overzealous regulations. Then again I've never been a diesel person so eh

[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51419404]I feel bad for VW, being forced into such a corner by overzealous regulations. Then again I've never been a diesel person so eh[/QUOTE] They play by the same rulebook as every other manufacturer, and as far as we know, none of the others have had any Diesel emissions-cheating scandals at all, let alone as pervasive as Audi's and VW's. You shouldn't feel bad for emissions regulations actually working to preserve our environment for the future.

[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51419404]I feel bad for VW, being forced into such a corner by overzealous regulations.[/QUOTE] Is it really overzealous when the future of civilization depends on it?

haha we got your 1.9 TDI's america

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;51418891]That's a shame, diesel powered cars are wonderful.[/QUOTE] They're horrible and diesel is going to die out in cars faster than petrol. Other manufacturers are thinking about dropping diesel [editline]24th November 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=BF;51420291]They play by the same rulebook as every other manufacturer, and as far as we know, none of the others have had any Diesel emissions-cheating scandals at all, let alone as pervasive as Audi's and VW's. You shouldn't feel bad for emissions regulations actually working to preserve our environment for the future.[/QUOTE] The first caught get hit the worst. There were others that cheated iirc, mitsubishi springs to mind

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;51420362]Is it really overzealous when the future of civilization depends on it?[/QUOTE] The future of civilization doesn't depend on diesel emissions. Or even passenger vehicles in general. It's a scapegoat.

[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51422615]The future of civilization doesn't depend on diesel emissions. Or even passenger vehicles in general. It's a scapegoat.[/QUOTE] Maybe not the future of civilization but millions of peoples lives all around the world sure do.

[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51422615]The future of civilization doesn't depend on diesel emissions. Or even passenger vehicles in general. It's a scapegoat.[/QUOTE] Yeah. Imagine if we just let this shit go unchecked: [t]https://wongfuphil.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/smog.jpg[/t] [t]http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2013/10/21/heavy-smog-invadesnortheasternchina/_jcr_content/mainpar/imageslideshow/slideShowImages/slide1/image.adapt.960.high.china_smog_01a.jpg[/t] [t]http://cdn.phys.org/newman/csz/news/800/2016/2-afterworstsm.jpg[/t] Emissions from vehicles are far from insignificant, and this graph is accounting for modern cars which meet modern emissions standards [t]https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/styles/large/public/2016-05/ghge-sources-overview_1.png[/t]

[QUOTE=BF;51423490]Yeah. Imagine if we just let this shit go unchecked: [t]https://wongfuphil.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/smog.jpg[/t] [t]http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2013/10/21/heavy-smog-invadesnortheasternchina/_jcr_content/mainpar/imageslideshow/slideShowImages/slide1/image.adapt.960.high.china_smog_01a.jpg[/t] [t]http://cdn.phys.org/newman/csz/news/800/2016/2-afterworstsm.jpg[/t] Emissions from vehicles are far from insignificant, and this graph is accounting for modern cars which meet modern emissions standards [t]https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/styles/large/public/2016-05/ghge-sources-overview_1.png[/t][/QUOTE] Emissions from vehicles are far from insignificant, yes. Now in "vehicles", or "transportation" in that graph, how many of those vehicles are normal passenger cars and not, say, cargo ships, which are known to pollute the same as millions of cars? A bunch of pictures of smog doesn't really show much either, especially not when the first pic shows what I believe is los angeles covered in smog, and yet tokyo, which is much more densely populated, barely has any, ever. [editline]24th November 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Morgen;51422634]Maybe not the future of civilization but millions of peoples lives all around the world sure do.[/QUOTE] That's very sensationalist but not very realistic.

[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51423538]Emissions from vehicles are far from insignificant, yes. Now in "vehicles", or "transportation" in that graph, how many of those vehicles are normal passenger cars and not, say, cargo ships, which are known to pollute the same as millions of cars?[/QUOTE] Cargo ships do pollute more than a car obviously. However you have a metric shit ton more cars. You also concentrate cars into a relatively small area (cities). You also have millions of people living within that space. The issue here NOx rather than GHG emissions. Diesels put out way more than a regular gasoline car, and it has significant impacts on human health. In the EU [URL="http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/sector-share-of-nitrogen-oxides-emissions#tab-chart_2"]road based transportation accounts for over 40% of NOx emissions[/URL]. [editline]24th November 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51423538] That's very sensationalist but not very realistic.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]It's pretty bad. Within the European Union (EU), more than 430,000 people died prematurely due to PM2.5 in 2013, the most recent year with figures available. According to the EEA's Air quality in Europe - 2016 report, the toxic gas nitrogen dioxide (NO2) - released by vehicles and central heating boilers - has an impact equivalent to 71,000 premature deaths a year. Ground-level ozone (O3) is also killing people - an estimated 17,000 annually in the EU. [/QUOTE] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38078488[/url]

[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;51423538]Emissions from vehicles are far from insignificant, yes. Now in "vehicles", or "transportation" in that graph, how many of those vehicles are normal passenger cars and not, say, cargo ships, which are known to pollute the same as millions of cars? A bunch of pictures of smog doesn't really show much either, especially not when the first pic shows what I believe is los angeles covered in smog, and yet tokyo, which is much more densely populated, barely has any, ever. [editline]24th November 2016[/editline] That's very sensationalist but not very realistic.[/QUOTE] Morgen's addressed the first part of your post so I won't repeat what he said, but as for Tokyo, low-emission kei cars are incredibly popular (compared to the west, where everyone wants an SUV with a big 6 or 8 cylinder engine), and Tokyo has a world-leading public transport system which provides very good economies of scale for emissions.