GM Bringing More Diesel Engines To Cars And Trucks

In the wake of Volkswagen continuing diesel scandal, many European countries and officials are publicly coming out against national policies supporting diesel vehicles. This naturally has some automakers shying away from future diesel vehicle plans, despite there having been a growing chorus of cheerleaders for the more efficient motors. The long-anticipated Mazda 6 diesel, for example, is said to be on the chopping block following the VW scandal.

But GM’s product chief Mark Reuss isn’t scared so easily, telling Automotive News that the automaker has plans for new diesel cars and trucks in the pipeline. “We’re going to have a couple of really good ones, in both cars and trucks” he said, without going into anymore detail.

While the comment lacks detail, it does seem to confirm that at least one more diesel car will be coming to the U.S. market, probably in the next year. GM recently launched the 2.8-liter Duramax diesel engine in the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon twins, receiving a class-leading 31 MPG on the highway with its oil burners. GM also has the Chevy Cruze Diesel with 45 MPG highway from its torquey 2.0-liter diesel, with a new 1.6-liter diesel planned for the next-gen Cruze coming out next year.

Where else could diesel engines show up? Perhaps a smaller diesel V6 for GM’s full-size pickups, taking after the Ram 1500? That seems likely, as would be the addition of a diesel engine to either the Chevy Malibu or Impala. It’d be interesting to see GM offer a diesel engine in a crossover like the Traverse, though GM isn’t trying to build as big of a diesel business as Volkswagen. It does, however, want to give consumers who favor diesel the option, and having more options is never a bad thing.