Atsuo Ito doesn’t have fond memories of one of his first rides. “I remember the diesel car I used in driving school 22 years ago—a noisy, dirty one that produced smoke and soot,” recalls the 39-year-old advertising executive in Tokyo. He’s driven gasoline-powered vehicles ever since—until now. Ito recently bought a new Mazda Diesel CX-5 crossover. “This car is quiet, clean, and most important, it cut my monthly fuel expense by half,” Ito says.
Thirteen years ago, Tokyo’s governor destroyed Japanese interest in diesel vehicles by banning all but those that installed exhaust fume purifiers from roads in the nation’s largest city. Now the cars are making a comeback as manufacturers adopt technology that make them more eco-friendly. Hiroshima-based Mazda Motor is betting big on cleaner diesel engines for its home market, building new models to compete with diesel-powered sport-utility vehicles from Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motor and models that BMW and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz unit have started shipping from Europe, where half of all new cars run on diesel.
