| Europeans are ahead of the US in terms of diesel acceptance. About 12 years ago diesel technology changed from being dirty, clunky, slow drivetrains to being higher performance, less pollution, noise etc. The turbo diesel injection technology has become the norm in Europe and there is as many cars driving with diesel as petrol (gas). One can now get a lot more MPG using a diesel than petrol, which makes sense for longer commuters like myself. Initially diesel was cheaper than petrol, but that has swapped over the past few years.
I know that diesel is slowly being adopted in US, but will probably never be as popular as it is in Europe.
A stated before though my view is that HEV and PHEV will grow in stature over the next 10 years. The car of the future will be an EV with a small 1L diesel motor which will act to charge the batteries. So the drivetrain will be driven by battery technology alone. I can also see the adoption of other forms of energy such as Supercapicitors and Hydrogen as complimentary sources to the battery and fossil fuel. |