FCA's Diesel Passenger Cars Are Set To Die Off By 2022
Thanks mostly to the Dieselgate scandal, oil-burning cars have well and truly fallen out of favour, both with consumers and governments of the world. That’s why Porsche last week announced it was dropping all engines of this type from its range, and in a few year’s time, it looks like a far bigger player will follow suit: Fiat Chrysler.
Citing insider sources, the Financial Times reports that on 1 June FCA will be revealing a four-year plan to phase out diesel engines from all of its brands. Yep, by 2022 the automotive giant will have ditched diesel, although not quite entirely - this applies only to passenger cars, as there will apparently be diesel engine options available for commercial vehicles like the Dodge Ram (pictured below).
New car buyers shirking vehicles powered by these kinds of engines in favour for petrols, hybrids and EVs is no doubt a factor, but it’s believed the driving force behind the change is the increasing cost of keeping diesel engines in line with tightening regulations. And make no mistake, these regulations are only going to get more stringent, as governments around the world - many of which were pushing diesel not so long ago - clamp down on emissions.
It’d be a huge change for FCA, given that over 40 per cent of the cars it sold last year were in fact diesels. It also won’t be the last car company to move away from the fuel - expect more reports and announcements along these lines to emerge the next few months.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Up next: rotary diesels are now being used
Lol
That would be interesting
A diesel Rotary would probably spit out the purest form of cancer in the form of oil, NOx and other particles.
2022 is when I die.
Wait, isn’t that gonna blow up in the FCA’s faces? Like Mr. RX-8?
Does that “40% of the cars” include the commercial vehicles or only the passenger cars?
It said passenger cars
If they stop using Cummins in those trucks people are going to revolt.
Thank goodness they are not doing that.
Well at least there’ll be no more Diesel Maseratis!!
The boys would be happy.
Im the only one not happy with the hate diesel gets? Yes they are not good for the environment, just like any other use of hydrocarbons, but they are really so much worse than petrol? Plus petrol cars, although the rate of improvement over the last few years is great, they are still not as thermally efficient at diesel. Not until Mazda can perfect compression ignition, which no other manufacturers seems to develop. Plus petrol is more expensive than diesel (1,6 euro/L for petrol, 1,2 euro/L for diesel). Also, why don’t we see more LPG and CNG cars? There seems to be only a handful…
Diesels are dirty no matter how much EU subsidies to VW group try to (falsely) improve. It should only be allowed in rural areas.
The problem is that while diesel is thermally efficient, the much longer hydrocarbon chains burn much dirtier, meaning more particulate and NOx emissions. It’s a less extreme version of burning engine oil (after all, engine oil is also mostly alkanes).
Diesels should die anyways.
The people at lexus must be rolling on the floor in laughter.
Not like anyone above 1% market share hears Lexus laugh anyway
Jeremy Clarkson must be happy!
At least the trucks keep their diesel