Video: GM executive talks down diesel

GM vice chairman Bob Lutz took pains to point out that fuel-efficient diesel engines, popular in Europe, will not provide as easy an easy answer to America's petroleum dependence. "Do not assume that the diesel engine is a panacea and is going to make everyone get to a fleet average of 36 miles per gallon," Lutz says in the video. The popular notion Lutz is trying to refute is that diesels, already popular in Europe, offer the fuel economy benefits of gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles but without all the added cost and complexity of gasoline/electric hybrid technology.