Frankfurt: Luxury carmaker Daimler will continue to sell diesel-powered vehicles in the United States, in contrast to German rival Volkswagen, it said yesterday.
"There is currently no decision nor are there considerations to withdraw diesel from the US", a company spokesman said, denying a report from weekly magazine Der Spiegel, which had said the carmaker would cease to sell such cars next year.
Daimler's sales of diesel powered cars account for less than one percent of its Mercedes brand's car sales in the United States, he added.
Volkswagen said on Tuesday it would drop diesel vehicles in the United States and refocus on sport utility and electric vehicles, as the automaker looks to reboot strategy for its core brand in the Americas in the wake of a damaging diesel emissions cheating scandal.
The move, announced by Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess, breaks with earlier suggestions it could return to the once-popular technology after the emissions scandal fades from memory.
The decision to drop diesel vehicles – which formerly made up a quarter of the brand’s U.S. sales – is just one element of a strategic overhaul that Diess conceded could take a decade to close the gap with rivals in the United States.
