Someone just pointed out to me that there is a rumor spreading that VW will not ship their 2007 TDIs to the US. I don’t have an official source yet, but it seems probable that the 2006 units will be shipped to the end of this year and the 2008 models might ship in late 2007. Skipping a year could be a bad sign (apparently VW has some management and financial issues) or a result of the gap between technology release schedules and regulations, or both. The automobile industry needs regulation to spur innovation at this point, though, so I would rather see some minor delays than seriously flawed and vulnerable (low mpg, high CO2 emission) technology continue to be released to the public. The sense I get is that the VW TDI crowd would be ready to jump to the Honda or Audi diesels at a moments notice. They are loyal to the function of their cars as much as the fashion, and it’s pretty clear who is winning the technology race right now…add to that the fact that hybrids still don’t make real economic sense and you get a new market emerging for someone to jump into with cheap (to manufacture and own) yet highly-efficient/clean vehicles. Ghosin probably knows this better than anyone, but I don’t see him making any diesel noises yet.

Edited to add (21 Nov 2006): It turns out the decision is related to a leap in technology to new TDI-CRD. The 2008 VW models are already being reported at car shows.