If there?s one automaker that has been a tireless booster of diesel passenger cars in the U.S. market, sticking with them through thick and thin?nearly every model year, for decades?it?s Mercedes-Benz. They’re arguably part of the brand’s heritage in the U.S.; back in the early 1980s, four out of five vehicles Mercedes sold in this country were diesels. So it?s a little shocking to hear the automaker is even considering giving up on diesels in the U.S. market.
This past week at the Los Angeles auto show, Matthias Luehrs, vice president of sales and product management at Mercedes-Benz Cars, told us that in Europe, customers are still asking for diesels. There, the diesel-model share is down just 1 percent within a growing market?meaning the absolute demand is growing. But in the U.S. and Canada, he conceded, demand for diesels, which the automaker has badged as BlueTec in the recent past, is low and continuing to fall?to the degree that it warrants a reality check. ?Here we have to look at that and see if it makes sense as such to offer diesels in the future,? said Luers, who called abandoning U.S. diesels entirely ?a theoretical option.? ?We have not come to a conclusion, but we obviously always develop cars and offer vehicles according to customer demand,? Luehrs added. The automaker is seeing decreased U.S. interest in diesels not just for passenger cars but for crossovers, too, he said, so it has launched an analysis to see where?and if?Americans do want di...