Exploding costs and brutal new emissions laws will do what the Dieselgate emissions scandal couldn?t do?kill off Volkswagen?s small-diesel-engine range, or at least the ones smaller than those it sold in the United States, VW executives are saying.
Volkswagen?s head of development, Frank Welsch, said this week that the next generation of the 1.6-liter turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, used in an all-new Polo going on sale later this year, will be the last small diesel the embattled giant ever develops. (VW has no current plan to offer the Polo in the United States.) All new diesels in Europe after 2020 will need exhaust-scrubbing technology that will cost their makers up to the equivalent of more than $850 a car, even for the smallest city hatchbacks. The company will continue to develop its larger, more versatile EA288 2.0-liter TDI?which it uses in everything from hatchbacks to mid-size SUVs by Audi, Volkswagen, Seat, and ?koda?but nothing smaller. The world?s biggest carmaker will turn instead to hybrid power for its smallest cars, with electric motors boosting their three- and four-cylinder gasoline powertrains.
While VW?s new 148-hp 1.5-liter gasoline engine posts an emissions figure of 112 grams of CO2 per kilometer, the EU?s 2020 regulations demand a European fleet average of 95 grams. Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, BMW, and Daimler have their own targets for that deadline date that vary between 88 and 101 grams. It?s from the EU and it?s complicated, so ...