At the recent “MINI Takes The States” road rally, its head of U.S. product strategy, Patrick McKenna, said that the British automaker is still considering a diesel model for the U.S. market.
The dilemma that the automaker is having is whether or not a diesel model will attract new customers to the brand. One of its main concerns is that customers that would have bought a gas variant MINI would just opt for a diesel one instead. Not that that’s a bad thing, but MINI would want to build a larger consumer base if it was to introduce a diesel model stateside.
Since the automaker does have limited resources, investing into a diesel model could hurt the brand more than help. Currently MINI is working on a new generation of powerplants, which McKenna claimed will offer more performance and better fuel efficiency than current powerplants. If we were to however see a diesel model, chances are it would end up on one of the other end vehicles in MINI’s lineup. The Countryman would be a good candidate, with its higher base price helping to deter some of the diesel’s additional costs in development.
[Source: Autoblog Green]