Just one model year after Mazda announced they would be bringing the diesel version of their CX-5 crossover to the US followed by the Mazda6, they have now announced they are pulling the plug due to slow sales.

“After evaluating consumer demand, Mazda will no longer offer the Skyactiv-D diesel engine in the US market,” a company spokesperson told CarScoops. “Mazda will continue to advance its diesel technology globally as part of our Multi-Solution Powertrain Strategy,” they added.

While diesel engines in regular vehicles around the world are becoming fewer in numbers due to tightening governmental restrictions, they never really grew to popularity in the US to begin with, typically only being found on trucks. Mazda started talking about diesel options for the CX-5 and Mazda6 since all the way back in 2012, and the CX-5 finally got its diesel option in 2019. However, on Mazda’s website, the Mazda6 version was still listed as a “future vehicle.” Both models have since disappeared making for yet another manufacturer to remove the fuel as an option from its lineup.

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While it’s no shock that apart from trucks, diesel’s popularity is waning in the US, it does come as somewhat of a surprise from Mazda, who just last October told us that both the diesel CX-5 and Mazda6 had completed their US certification process.

The main reason why not many Americans wanted to hop on Mazda’s diesel bandwagon, assuming they even knew about it, was the price. Many who did know about the CX-5 diesel also knew that it retailed at over $40,000, yet it only returned an EPA estimated 29 mpg combined.  In contrast, the regular CX-5 runs about $25,000 and gets 28 mpg. Given all that, it’s not hard to see why Mazda discontinued the diesel CX-5 and cancelled the diesel Mazda6.

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Looking ahead, it is anticipated there will be further adoption of electric and hydrogen vehicles on the horizon. As such, it’s safe to say that Mazda’s efforts to make ICE engines more fuel-efficient with diesel are as good as dead. Now all we have left to hope for is that those exciting inline-six plans don’t suffer the same fate.