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I am surprised and a little disappointed that we have 9 pages of posts and never made it to several obvious reasons as to why diesel works better in Europe and hybrids work better for US tastes. First, politics. Diesel is taxed at a higher rate in the US and lower in europe. Second, supply. There are slightly different refinement techniques used in Europe and the US. The US way nets more gas and less diesel per barrel of oil compared to the European way, and switching methods is expensive. Third, more politics. NOx emissions are tightly regulated (thanks, Cali) in the US by more than a factor of 4 (.07g/mi versus .29g/mi in Europe), and diesels are notoriously bad at NOx emissions compared to gasoline engines. Yes, even the newer clean diesels barely pass California emissions, whereas hybrids are some of the cleanest cars on the road.
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