MINI Diesel Still Under Consideration for U.S.

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]