Despite numerous delays, the Mazda 6 diesel is still coming

The Mazda6 was originally slated to debut back in 2013, but it’s been plagued by numerous delays as the Japanese automaker struggled to meet the strict emissions standards in the United States. Fortunately, representatives from Mazda have assured consumers that the car is still coming, but when it’ll come is still unclear.

“We’re still very much committed to diesel,” said Jim O’Sullivan, CEO of Mazda North American Operations, in an interview at the Los Angeles Auto Show, as quoted by Automotive News. “We are still working on getting the performance aspects up to where we want them, and we do have a plan, an engineering road map, to get it done.”

The automaker’s goal with the Mazda 6 was to deliver a powerful yet affordable diesel engine option which meant that Mazda had to design an engine that didn’t need an after treatment to meet emissions. That didn’t work out, however, so now the company is working hard to release the car while still doing right by their customers.

“If we were a commodity brand and didn’t care about that, it would be on the market right now,” continued O’Sullivan, as quoted by Autoblog. “But I know the people were expecting something from us, expecting certain drive characteristics and performance, and I didn’t want to disappoint them. I think there’s still a huge business case for clean diesel here in North America, being still the only Asian brand that’s talking about bringing it in”