German luxury automakers make some really impressive diesel engines. However, the US never receives the best ones like BMW's quad-turbo unit or the 2.1-liter diesel engine Mercedes offers in the E-Class (but not the C-Class in the US). According to Automotive News, Mercedes has yet to decide whether to resume selling diesels in the US. The EPA has not approved Mercedes diesel engines for 2017, so it may be a moot point anyway. Diesels have been under extreme scrutiny ever since the Volkswagen Dieselgate debacle.

Back in September of 2015, the EPA started to review all light vehicles with a diesel engine in the US. Dietmar Exler, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA told reporters at the New York Auto Show that the company's engineers are currently in talks with the EPA. However, Dietmar was not aware of the status of those talks. Diesel is really starting to lose relevancy in the US market. Before the EPA review, diesels made up just 2-3 percent of Mercedes US sales. Exler says that "no decision has been made one way or the other," on the future of diesel sales, but we don't think that the decision to keep selling them will make much sense. This could be the death of Mercedes diesel models in the US.

Exler said that Mercedes will focus on EV models with 7 or 8 new models coming to the US by 2025. In terms of competitors, Jaguar Land Rover will sell a seventh diesel model in the US this year. 10-15 percent of JLR sales are diesels, so the company does have a better reason to keep selling them in the US. It appears that Mercedes will move away from diesels in favor of EVs, which really comes as no surprise in the current climate.