Automakers Say: Cheap Gas Hinders Diesel's Appeal

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. Reporter Ed Garsten of the AP submited this story from the industry meeting.

"The combination of cheap gasoline prices and a perception it is a dirty fuel is preventing new, cleaner diesel fuel from catching on with U.S. consumers, leaders of the Big 3 automakers said Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT

"Clean diesel is something ... in this country that hasn't really been well received," said Ford Motor Co. chairman and chief executive Bill Ford Jr. on Wednesday at the annual Management Briefing Seminars, an auto industry conference.

"People think of diesel in this country and they think of big belching buses of the 70's and 80's," Ford said.

Several years ago, a suggestion was floated and rejected to change the name of diesel to something else because public perception was so negative.

While widely accepted in Europe where gasoline is much more expensive, U.S. consumers are not motivated to change fuels as long as gas is cheap, said General Motors Corp. vice chairman Robert Lutz.

"We can't go in the opposite direction of our customers. At $1 to $1.20 a gallon they're to be forgiven for buying V8 Navigators and Hummer H2's," said Lutz.

Another challenge to greater acceptance in the United States is the higher cost of diesel engines said Dieter Zetsche, president and CEO of DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group.

The industry must also consider whether to go ahead with building diesel engines that will meet stricter federal emission standards that go into effect in 2007, he said.

As an alternative, the industry should improve the technology of today's vehicles to improve emissions, Lutz said.

The industry is in a bind, however, because it's under pressure to improve engine emissions, but must continue to appeal to customers, said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research, one of the conference's sponsoring organizations.