In the ongoing fuel mileage numbers game played by the automotive manufacturers, General Motors has recently announced that the 2014 Chevolet Cruze Turbo Diesel car can now sip its oily brew at an even slower rate. According to GM News, the new Chevy turbo diesel car delivers an industry best EPA-estimated 46 MPG on the highway. That is 4 MPG better than previous estimates released upon the Cruze’s debut at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show, and better than its closest competitor, the Volkswagen Jetta diesel that gets 42 MPG on the highway.

This improvement in fuel consumption performance was a direct development of work done on the Cruze Turbo Diesel car by GM engineers since its February introduction. “We were still testing at the time, but wanted to be clear that we would be better than Jetta,” a GM spokesman said. “The engineering team did a lot of incremental changes to the Cruze diesel from the Eco model to gain efficiency.”

The engine is also slightly more powerful. The Cruze’s 2.0-liter turbo diesel engine produces 148 horsepower, where as the Jetta diesel delivers 140 hp. Gary Altman, chief engineer on the the car, said, “We harnessed generations of diesel expertise to adapt our world-class global engine for the North American market.” The Cruze Turbo Diesel featuring a six-speed automatic transmission, has an estimated driving range of 700 highway miles.

The Cruze diesel is the first GM diesel car sold in the U.S. since the 1980s. As more automakers deliver diesel cars to the American market to comply with stricter fuel economy rules, vehicles such as the Cruze Turbo Diesel will be a bellwether for diesel demand in the country. It is also very clean, as it puts out 90 percent less nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions than earlier diesel models, according to GM.