New diesels will get better mileage and have cleaner emissions than your average car. Pictured above: 2009 Jetta SportWagen 2L TDI Clean Diesel.

Later this year (see the timeline below), we will finally begin to see an influx of new model diesels in the United States. While diesels make up 50% of the market share of vehicles in Europe, they’re still trying to shrug off the stigma of being dirty, noisy beasts here in the US. So what changed?

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At the 2008 Geneva Auto show, Mercedes debuted their new diesel-hybrid SUV, which gets a whopping 40-MPG. Add the latest in emissions-control technology, and this vehicle breaks the world’s record for lowest carbon-emitting SUV.

See the full story at Gas 2.0.

Mercedes plans to release a diesel-hybrid SUV capable of 40 miles per gallon, with cleaner emissions than your standard car. Demo’d at the 2008 Geneva Auto show, the SUV is built on Mercedes’ relatively new BlueTec emissions control technology—a combination of catalytic converters and advanced chemical processing that scrubs out the worst pollutants produced by the diesel engine.

The 4-cylinder, 214 horsepower engine will also break the world’s record for lowest carbon emissions (157 g/km) in an SUV.

The new Vision GLK BlueTec hybrid sports a standard hybrid-electric system: An electric motor seamlessly supplements the 2.2 liter diesel engine during fuel-intensive acceleration. Regenerative braking repowers the lithium-ion batteries, and start-stop technology shuts the motor off when the car is at a dead stop.

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Mercedes is billing the E320 BLUETEC as the “cleanest diesel vehicle in the world.” Engineers incorporated a modular design concept which uses a series of components, such as an oxidation catalytic converter and a maintenance-free particulate filter, to “wash” emissions from the engine before anything leaves the tailpipe. Those features, combined with an advanced new approach to reducing nitrogen oxide emissions, make the BLUETEC’s emissions cleaner than even a standard gasoline automobile.

The BLUETEC also offers a combined 36 mpg (700 miles per tank), all the luxury Mercedes is known for, and a 208 horsepower V-6 engine that goes 0-60 in 6.6 seconds. Not bad. The last diesel vehicle I owned went 0-60 in about 6.6 minutes when the turbo still worked and with wind pushing it down a steep hill.

Though the BLUETEC’s new diesel engine technology greatly reduces emissions, Mercedes still only approves the use of B5 (5% biodiesel/95% dino-diesel) in its diesel vehicles. Unfortunately, this effectively means that Mercedes doesn’t approve of the use of biodiesel. By the time next year’s World Green Car contest rolls around, it would be a thrill to see Mercedes and other car manufacturers embrace existing and available renewable fuels along with their commitment to reducing tailpipe emissions. (If you missed Clayton’s excellent “Green Myth Busting” post on biodiesel, be sure to check it out.)

To be eligible for the World Green Car prize, vehicles must:

• Be available to the public now or in the near future, and

• Meet or exceed the requirements of California’s SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) regulations or the US EPA’s Tier 2 standards, or

• Get at least 47.6 mpg, or

• Use advanced technology aimed at increasing the vehicle’s environmental responsibility.

The E320 beat out two other finalists, the BMW Hydrogen 7 and the 60+ mpg diesel Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion, to claim the award.

Speaking of which, from my view here in the peanut gallery, it looks to like the World Green Car jurors may have chosen the wrong car! At least, they may have chosen the wrong diesel car. The E320 BLUETEC is a fantastic automobile, and a few dozen people in the U.S. might even be able to afford one ($52,000 for the base model). The VW Polo BlueMotion diesel, on the other hand, get 25 more miles per gallon than the E320 BLUETEC and has a very reasonable MSRP of under $20,000. Of course, the downside is that VW has yet to announce when the car will be available to US consumers, if ever.

Oh Lord, maybe you can buy me a Mercedes-Benz after all…