Diesel fuel prices are down and the competitive herd of diesel auto makers in North America is thinning, so this may just be the right time for German car makers to push their expertise in fuel-efficient and now relatively clean diesel engines.
And so they are. Carefully. At least in Canada.
After all, as the Ontario government made very clear in its recently announced electric vehicle subsidy program – up to $10,000 in rebates to buyers of electric vehicles starting next year – diesels are not in favour.
Elected officials have apparently shown that they are perfectly happy to pick technology winners and losers in the auto industry. Their bias: electrics.
The politicians have another little regulatory trick that reflects their anti-diesel bias, too. Under fleet average standards for corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and CO{-2} (carbon dioxide), vehicles are certified using a 35-year-old test weighting of 55 per cent city and 45 per cent highway driving.
This might seem innocuous, but it's not.
Diesel vehicles that perform very well at high-load and high-speed driving – commuting and freight hauling, in other words – are penalized. But vehicles that perform well in stop-and-go driving, like hybrids, are well rewarded.
In the face of subtle but clear political opposition, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have all taken a relatively low-key approach in launching new fuel-efficient and relatively clean diesels.
Last year, Volkswagen released its cleaner Jetta TDI diesel and ended up winning the Green Car of the Year award in the United States. But the Jetta TDI has a ready-made fan base in Canada, so VW Canada really needed only to start handing out keys to buyers anxious for the latest diesel from Wolfsburg. No advertising needed and barely any effort on the public relations front.
Then in the fall Mercedes made a modest push to create buzz around its new BlueTec diesels, from the E320 to the three diesel SUVs, the ML, GL and R-Class. BMW has since launched two diesel models, the 335d sedan and the X5 xDrive 35d SUV. And now Audi is rolling out the Q7 TDI.
All the German makers, obviously aware of government sentiment and cautious not to overplay their hands in the eyes of policy makers, have been relatively low key in their launch efforts.
This is in sharp contrast to their American counterparts. Down south, Audi has unleashed an in-your-face marketing push that combines aggressive advertising with behind-the-scenes lobbying and PR efforts.
Just before the big U.S. July 4 holiday, Audi unveiled a new ad slogan: “Diesel. It's No Longer a Dirty Word.” While underscoring new technologies that have gone a long way to clean up diesel pollution, the core of the ads is an appeal to American fears about energy security.
That is, the ads point out that if one-third of Americans drove “clean diesels,” the United States would shave 1.5 billion barrels of oil from the massive oil imports coming from places like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. In fact, the U.S. imports about 1.5 billion barrels daily from the Saudis – and about 1.6 billion barrels from Canada.
Meanwhile, Audi of America has been quietly holding roundtables for various public policy influencers with an eye to building the case for its new, improved diesel technology. And Audi has also mounted a campaign using social networks like Facebook to get its diesel message across. Others are following suit.
But in a world where gasoline-electric hybrids and pure electrics seem to be the politically correct choice, the diesel push – no matter how aggressive and how well considered – may not have legs.
