The Wall St. Journal online recently published a great article that discusses the current challenge of european car manufacturers attempt to achieve market penetration for diesel technology.The author doesn ‘t really discuss how fantastic these motors are instead focusing on recent buying trends.As a big fan of the current developments in diesel technology it ‘s nice to see more attention paid to the models hopefully resulting in greater consumer acceptance.

>In its gasoline-powered versions, the BMW X5 is a fuel-thirsty beast, rated at just 15 miles per gallon in the city—22 on the highway for the 5.0-liter V-8. With his diesel, Mr. Aust says, “I ‘m doing 30 on the highway. One of my neighbors has an X5 5-liter. He said, ‘What are you getting for mileage? ‘ I said, ‘About 30, ‘ and he said, ‘I hate you. ‘ ”

>Many of the vehicles BMW AG sells in the U.S. were too expensive to qualify for the cash-for-clunkers program. But BMW decided to offer $4,500 off its X5 and 335d diesel models anyway, promoting the discount as an “eco-credit. ” The result: BMW dealers had just eight days ‘ supply of 335d sedans in stock at the end of August, and only 14 days ‘ worth of diesel X5s. (Mr. Aust bought his X5 before the promotion, but he ‘s good natured about it, saying he did fine on his deal.)

>The promotion helped boost total sales of BMW diesels from 305 vehicles in June, before the promotion, to 482 vehicles in August. No, that ‘s not a lot of diesels–just under 2% of BMW ‘s total sales for August. But it was encouraging enough for BMW to continue the diesel “eco-credit ” promotion, and allow dealers to use the discount to write orders for diesel models not in stock, says company spokesman Tom Kowaleski. Long term, BMW ‘s goal is to boost diesels to about 10% of its total sales.

Full article available here.