German automakers, coming off record US sales in 2006, expect growing sales of "clean diesel" cars to help them compete for fuel-conscious American buyers against Japan-based rivals, industry officials said Sunday according to Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. The share of diesels among new US cars and light vehicles is projected to double by 2010 to about 7.5 per cent, a major opportunity for German makers, Bernd Gottschalk, the head of Germany's car industry association VDA, said at the annual Detroit auto show. While Japanese automakers have led the way on hybrid petrol-electric cars in the US, German companies are counting increasingly on their reputation for cutting-edge diesel technology in a US market that is expected to shrink overall in 2007.
