Volkswagen won't be using Bluetec branding on diesels

Last year Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen Group and BMW announced that they would be cooperating to use the diesel emissions after-treatment technologies that had been developed by Mercedes to reduce NOx emissions. Mercedes-Benz uses the Bluetec branding on their clean diesel vehicles even though not all of them use urea injection. The presumption at the time was that the other two German companies would be using the Bluetec branding as well to help increase awareness of the technology.
Last November at the Los Angeles Auto Show BMW said they would not be using the Bluetec name on their vehicles, although when we spoke to Daniel Kammerer of BMW in January at the Detroit Show he did confirm that they were still using the same technology including the Urea injection system. It now appears that Volkswagen will now follow the same path and keep the well known TDI designation on their diesels instead of Bluetec. VW spokesman Keith Price confirmed that the company never announced plans to use the name Bluetec and will instead focus on promoting clean diesel. The new Jetta TDI that's coming next March does not in fact require any urea injection to be 50 state compliant with Tier 2 Bin 5 standards. Chrysler at least for now appears to be the only other brand that will use the designation although now that they are independent it will be interesting to see how long that lasts.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]