Item Description

As demand for diesel engines in standard sedan and station wagon cars in the United States has been much lower than in Europe, the development of smaller automotive turbodiesels has (in general) been led by European manufacturers in recent years. Diesel fuel in the USA (prior to 2006) had a significantly higher level of sulphur than the fuel used in Europe, which meant that diesel-engined cars from European makers had to either be fitted with specially developed fuel and emissions control system for the (prohibitively small) North American market, or simply
could not be sold in that market.

After ultra low sulphur diesel was introduced in the United States in October 2006, automakers began to offer turbodiesel models which could take advantage of it to reduce emissions. Manufacturers such as Volkswagen have been releasing cars with four and six-cylinder turbodiesels.