With gasoline and diesel fuel prices staying low (and uncharacteristically consistent) as the summer progresses, data analysts at Edmunds conducted a recent crunch of the often-discussed payback times for the nation's two competing fuel-saving drivetrains: hybrid-electric and diesel vehicles.
The latest round goes to diesel. There are two factors currently working in diesel's favor. First, diesel fuel prices have dropped precipitously since last summer's explosion to $4 per gallon (and beyond) and normalized to pricing quite near regular unleaded gasoline.
Second, the price "premium" for diesel technologies is low — and in a few cases, combines with federal tax credits to make the diesel-powered vehicle actually cheaper than a comparable gasoline-engine variant of the same model. For those vehicles, diesel-engine payback time is immediate.
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