Vincentric announced its most recent U.S. Diesel Analysis, in which 55 of the total 356 diesel vehicles analyzed, or just over 15%, were identified as having a lower total cost-of-ownership than their closest all-gasoline powered counterparts.
The 356 available diesel vehicles were categorized into three types: passenger cars (9 diesels), pickup trucks (272 diesels), and SUV, crossover & vans (75 diesels). Every one of the nine passenger car diesels showed lower total cost-of-ownership compared to their closest all-gasoline-powered counterparts. In contrast, the pickup truck diesels showed less than 1% to be cost-effective compared to the most similar all-gasoline vehicle, with all 19 of these cost-effective pickup truck diesels manufactured by Ram. Finally, the SUV, crossover & vans category showed 36% of diesels having lower total-cost-of-ownership than their closest all-gasoline-powered counterpart.
“There are a variety of reasons contributing to the higher ownership costs of diesel vehicles,” said Vincentric President David Wurster. “In addition to higher maintenance costs for many diesel vehicles, we’ve observed gasoline prices falling and diesel prices rising over the past several months. In spite of this, over 50 diesels showed cost-of-ownership savings, signaling to buyers that diesel cost-savings are specific to certain models and vehicle types.”
To conduct the 2016 U.S. Diesel Analysis, Vincentric measured total-cost-of-ownership of vehicles using eight different cost factors: depreciation, fees & taxes, financing, fuel, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost and repairs. The analysis assumed vehicle ownership for five years and 15,000 miles driven annually.
