MINI Diesel Models Likely Headed to America
MINI has been mulling over bringing diesel models to America for quite some time now, and the British automaker might finally pull the trigger with its next wave of new models.
Recently, MINI product manager Patrick McKenna discussed MINI’s future including the expansion to 10 models in the automaker’s lineup. Once again, McKenna expressed MINI USA’s interest in bringing diesel models to the States, but reiterated that it wouldn’t be coming with the current generation of MINIs.
SEE ALSO: MINI Diesel Still Under Consideration for U.S.
The reason lies with design issues associated with the bluetech solution, which uses urea injection to reduce CO2 emissions. Simply put, there’s no place to put the technology in the current generation of vehicles, but MINI engineers are actively ensuring that it’ll be incorporated for next-generation models.
Another argument however about diesels with MINIs, is how more fuel efficient future MINI models will become, in addition to lightening their weight. The combination of the two will give MINIs diesel-like performance and fuel efficiency, though the smaller powerplants will undoubtedly lack the torque diesel models have to offer. So will the extra torque and just the fact that it’s a diesel be enough to help it sell in America? Time will tell.
[Source: Motoring File]
Discuss this story at Mini2.com
Jason Siu began his career in automotive journalism in 2003 with Modified Magazine, a property previously held by VerticalScope. As the West Coast Editor, he played a pivotal role while also extending his expertise to Modified Luxury & Exotics and Modified Mustangs. Beyond his editorial work, Jason authored two notable Cartech books. His tenure at AutoGuide.com saw him immersed in the daily news cycle, yet his passion for hands-on evaluation led him to focus on testing and product reviews, offering well-rounded recommendations to AutoGuide readers. Currently, as the Content Director for VerticalScope, Jason spearheads the content strategy for an array of online publications, a role that has him at the helm of ensuring quality and consistency across the board.
More by Jason Siu
Comments
Join the conversation
With the more strict 2014 Euro standards, they'll have to design urea systems into the next gen Minis anyway. I would expect that to be when diesel Minis have a chance of making it over.
First off, in the real world none of the current gasoline powered offerings will ever come close the 50s to 60s mpgUS that a diesel in this car would see in the real world. Diesel offerings like this would show how bad of joke all of the current hybrids are compared to what you can achieve with any of the bluetec or similar diesels offered around the world today.. If we would fix the less than useless current EPA test this would become apparent! The current test regime is low by about 20-30 % on all of the current sold in the US diesels today. The current test also gives automatic diesels a rating that is low by at least 10-20 %. The current 2014 6 spd manual trans Passat TDI-CR is rated only at 30 city/38mixed/42 highway. If we had a real test that gave diesels a rating they can actually see that would be 36 city/45 mixed/50 highway. The automatic version of this car would be 36 city/40-42 mixed/48 highway. And those numbers are conservative compared to what the average driver will see. In the real world You can't make these cars see as low as the current rating so they are today not being represented to public as the fuel sippers they really are!