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"  Despite the frenetic pace of the LA Auto Show yesterday, Wolfganag Hatz, the head of Audi/VW&amp;#039;s powertrain development sat with us for a few minutes to talk about the future of diesels in the United States. He also hinted at the future diesel products coming from Audi.   Diesel cars were once written off as smoky, underpowered slugs, but that&amp;#039;s rapidly changing as we found recently on a comparison test drive of the new Jetta TDI. Mercedes and VW sell wonderful diesel-powered cars. Audi will follow soon with the Q7 diesel and so will BMW with a 335d diesel 3 Series that we drove in Europe. All of these cars meet the same emission requirements as their gas-powered brethren.   Meeting them, however, requires extraordinary methods. In particular, diesel combustion produces high levels of NOx that are impossible to oxidize with standard catalytic converters. So the strategy is to reduce the amount of NOx the engine produces with combustion control, high-pressure fuel injection, lots of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and special exhaust after treatment procedures. For small light cars, like the Jetta TDI, a NOx trap is sufficient, but larger cars rely on a system that injects a urea solution into the exhaust.   The diesel engine is worth the trouble, Hatz says, because it offers 25 percent better fuel economy than a gas engine. And in general, better fuel economy means less CO2 emissions. There is an alternative to the diesel and that&amp;#039;s a gas-electric hybrid system, which offers a similar 25 percent fuel-economy bump. But, Hatz says, diesel is a much cheaper way to improve fuel economy. While the exhaust after treatment adds some cost to a diesel, it&amp;#039;s less than the cost of a hybrid system.   The trouble for U.S. customers is the fact that diesel fuel costs more than gasoline. So right now, the potential payback is too long for the diesel to make economic sense. The solution Hatz says, is that the U.S. should get new, modern refineries that can change the gas/diesel ratio easily. Don&amp;#039;t hold your breath waiting for that\u2014the newest U.S. refinery was built in 1976.   In a similar discussion at Audi press conference, Johan de Nysschen, Executive Vice President, Audi of America, said today that &amp;quot;if one-third of today&amp;#039;s vehicles were TDI, it would save as much as 1.4-million barrels of imported oil.&amp;quot; De Nysschen urged President-elect Barack Obama to embrace diesel as he has plug-in electric cars.   Audi is bullish on diesels: As soon as next spring there will be a diesel Audi car to compliment the Q7 TDI. Hatz wouldn&amp;#039;t reveal which model will get the diesel, but we&amp;#039;d bet on the A3. After all, it uses the same platform as the diesel Jetta. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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