With a new kind of diesel fuel entering the market in the next few days; new technologies that vastly reduce problems with noise, smell and performance; and federal tax benefits like the ones offered for hybrid-electric vehicles, car manufactures are hoping to get consumers excited about more diesel-powered cars and sport utility vehicles.


Though President Bush, who often mentions diesels as a promising way to promote a sharp rise in fuel economy, has laid out goals to reduce oil imports, those goals may be extremely difficult to reach, some experts say. Some auto industry experts predict that with new technology and tax breaks, the American market could become more like that of Europe, where half of new autos are diesel powered. There is some doubt, however, over whether refineries can keep up with that demand without a sharp rise in diesel prices.

Kevin B. McMahon, director of the Martec Group, a consulting and market research firm in Detroit, said consumers who now buy gasoline pickups or cars and choose an optional bigger engine, giving up a mile or two per gallon of fuel economy, will soon buy diesels instead.