Why are most C3 xW-40 oils, 5W-40 and not 0W-40?

[vitamin]

Why are most C3 xW-40 oils, 5W or higher, as opposed to 0W-40?

I'm curious if there is something about the chemistry of mid-SAPS that makes it harder to achieve the 0W winter rating? I'm not seeing a lot of C3 0W-40 oils outside of Mobil 1 ESP.

 

[dubber09]

Just guessing 0w-40 C3 is either too expensive to make or cannot meet all specs e.g. Noack.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Why are most C3 xW-40 oils, 5W or higher, as opposed to 0W-40?

I'm curious if there is something about the chemistry of mid-SAPS that makes it harder to achieve the 0W winter rating? I'm not seeing a lot of C3 0W-40 oils outside of Mobil 1 ESP.

There's a limited market in the US for C3 in 40 grade being that automakers have been trending towards 20 grades for years.

 

[OVERKILL]

Just guessing 0w-40 C3 is either too expensive to make or cannot meet all specs e.g. Noack.

Noack is a base oil property, the base oil blend for a C3 0W-40 wouldn't need to be any different from an A3/B4 0W-40. As @BMWTurboDzl noted, I suspect the demand just isn't there, that's why Mobil is the only one to make a generally available one.

 

[buster]

FWIW Noack for 0w40 ESP X3 is 8.6%.