There were 7.7 million diesel-powered passenger vehicles on U.S. roads at the end of 2015, and nearly 330,000 of those were new registrations during the year. The total includes cars, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), full-size pickups and vans. Commercial vehicles are not included.
The data were reported Thursday by the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF), an industry association representing diesel technology suppliers in the areas of advanced engines, vehicles and equipment; cleaner diesel fuel; and emissions-control systems. The DTF counts new registrations, which include new car registrations and re-registrations of old cars. Just under 155,000 new diesel-powered vehicles were sold in the United States in 2015.
The number would likely have been higher had Volkswagen Group not stopped selling diesel-powered VW and Audi vehicles in the United States in late September of last year following the company’s emissions-cheating scandal. According to data at HybridCars.com, six VW diesel models sold 53,322 units in 2015, down from 77,783 in 2014. Through May of this year VW has not sold a single new diesel vehicle in the United States.
Audi sales fell from 15,795 units of six different models in 2014 to 11,765 last year and none through the first five months of 2016.
The top-selling diesel vehicle in the United States is the Ram pickup from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU), which has sold about two-thirds of all 33,582 diesel vehicles sold through May of this year. Last year the Ram diesel sold 57,210 units in the United States. Total registrations of diesel-powered pickups outnumber diesel passenger car registrations by about seven to one in the United States.
Some highlights from the Diesel Technology Forum report:
- California led the nation with a 15.4% increase in the number of diesel-powered cars last year.
- Texas leads the nation in the total number of registered diesel vehicles.
- Wyoming (11.2%), Montana (8.5%) and Idaho (7.3%) have the highest percentages of registered diesel vehicles in operation.
- Maine posted the fastest growth in diesel pickup trucks in 2015, with a growth rate of 6.96%
The DTF noted that a 7% rise in the number of light-duty diesel-powered vehicles by 2025 will eliminate 19.7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save 3.3 billion barrels of crude oil. Over the period from 2005 through 2015, diesel-powered vehicles eliminated 70 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and saved 11 billion barrels of crude oil.
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