US Diesel sales YTD; X5 Petrol:Diesel 3:1
 

The Diesel Driver published YTD data on US diesel sales, including X5 and 335d.

http://www.thedieseldriver.com/wp-co...l-salesv23.jpg

For X5, Petrol : Diesel ratio is about 3:1.

What surprises me most is how well the Mercedes GL class is doing, and how distant third place Audi trails.

These figures look similar to the UK about 20 years ago when diesel powered car use really began to climb. In certain categories, such as SUV's, diesel engines make up more than 75% of sales with diesel cars now outselling petrol across the board because of the 20% efficiency savings.

My first diesel (1985) car was a 1.9litre Peugeot with 80bhp and power has steadily increased over the years with the other 5 cars. My new E71 (X6) xDrive 40d will produce in excess of 300bhp and yet will still produce more than 35mpg. In 5 years since I bought my E53 3.0d, power has jumped almost 30% and yet efficiency and emissions have improved considerably.

It's a great shame that all the inter-State arguments about adopting Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel fuel - which we have had for more than 10 years - has lead to such delays in diesel engines becoming more widely adopted in the US. I don't know the fuel situation in Canada. I think more and more people will convert to it with time once the loce affair with the big, thirsty V8 finally dies, and more drivers start to love the diesel's kick in the butt shove off the line.

I agree on the Audi Q7 - surprised it's selling so little (it's actually a great SUV).

Note that the data is meant for direct comparisons so for example the V8 data isn't included (petrol/gasoline only) so the ratio would change slightly as a complete X5 statement.

What Q7 diesel do you get in the US? The V6, the V8 or the V12? Or more than one?

looks like the V6: Audi of America > 2011 Audi Q7 > Explore the Audi Q7 > TDI® Efficiency

I really don't care for its looks so it'd be out in an instant... the Q5 is much more proportional and sleeker.

I'm also surprised the ML sells so well... even the Lexus RX beat it in comparison tests. Mercedes actually came in last of the bunch.

FYI - those appear to be global numbers. The US Diesel numbers are more like 9:1 for 35d:35i according to this:

U.S. Diesel Numbers: Q3 Sales Accelerate to 38%

No, they are US numbers. The chart illustrates the problem with statistics, which is that they can be interpreted in different ways.

Also, the second article has the same figures for the 35d as the first article, except for one month. I tend to trust the first figures, instead of believing a three-fold increase in a single month.

Your 9:1 example from the article is actually when considering only the 30i, not the 35i. It is so high because it refers to only the third quarter, when the 30i was out of production and the 35i was in production. Another way of saying it is that the 35d sold at 9 times the rate of an out-of-production model, a few of which remained on dealer lots.

Instead of focusing on the 30i plus 35i, I think it is actually worth considering all x5 models, with all engines, in which diesels are running at around 20% of X5 sales YTD (from the first chart, and estimating 2:1 for six cylinder petrol to eight cylinder petrol, the traditional BMW split for many years). Not bad for a new engine, but a long way from 9:1.

Currently no V8, V10 or V12 in diesel offered in US/Canada from Audi/BMW/Merecedes/VW, which is real shame.

Actually no. The Diesel Driver screwed up when they first posted the article and the chart. That wrong data was posted and commented by bmwblog. The Diesel Driver has since corrected and revised the chart the next day - the correct one is posted in this thread. But bmwblog failed to notice and no one made the correction.