Volkswagen diesel sale up to 22 percent of all VWs sold in the U.S.
Sales of diesel vehicles made up 22 percent of Volkswagen's sales in the United States last month, Bloomberg reported Monday. A Morgan Stanley analyst quoted in the article said that the fuel economy of diesel cars and rising gas prices caused the increase. Volkswagen's total sales were up 11 percent last month, so there's more to the increase than just fuel economy.
Volkswagen sells three diesel models – of the Jetta, the Golf and the New Beetle – in the United States, according to the article. About 40 percent of Jetta and New Beetle sales were diesel models, compared to only 13 percent for the Golf. The new Rabbit will soon replace the Golf. In previous years, diesel models made up between 12 and 14 percent of Volkswagen's sales.
[Source: Bloomberg] [Update: this story and others had "Volkswagon" typos corrected, thanks to Phil]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phil L. 10:07AM (5/11/2006)
Sebastian -
Please! This is the fourth article in less than a month:
It's Volkswagen with an "e" near the end, not an "o"!
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Razib Ahmed 6:01PM (5/11/2006)
Congratulation to Volkswagon and this statistics shows the growing popularity of diesel powered cars. In INdia 2006 is going to be the year of diesel cars (http://www.southasiabiz.com/2006/05/2006_the_year_of_diesel_powere.html). Maruti Udyog (MUL), is soon going to launch diesel powered cars in the Indian market and General Motors and Toyota are thinking about it seriously too. Tata Motors has already a good diesel powered car in the Indian market
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Sebastian 1:40AM (5/12/2006)
Phil,
you have no idea how dumb I feel about this. I should've stuck with VW in all instances, huh?
Seriously, thanks,
Sebastian
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Phil L. 7:29AM (5/12/2006)
Sebastian -
Thanks for fixing it. Glad to help!
Now to get someone besides VW and DC serious about diesel cars in the US...
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psych101 10:15AM (5/12/2006)
"Now to get someone besides VW and DC serious about diesel cars in the US..."
My sentiments exactly. I worked in the Balkans for a while and while I was there NATO supplied my team with a diesel Toyota Hilux 4-door pickup. It was a wonderful vehicle, and I looked for it when I got back to the US: Toyota has the truck in the form of the Tacoma, but no diesel! What gives? That diesel engine moved the truck along quite nicely, and I got 35 MPG in off-road, 4WD situations, and between 40 and 45 MPG on road.
Doesn't it seem that most manufacturers have diesels for the international market? It would seem to me that they could just bring them here with the modifications necessary for accepting up to B100...
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