Toyota could stop selling new diesel cars in Europe

Toyota could stop selling new diesel cars in Europe

According to Didier Leroy, executive vice president at Toyota, new diesel-powered Toyota cars may not be launched in Europe due to the carmaker’s success with petrol and plug-in hybrid powertrains.

Speaking to Autocar UK at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, he stressed that this isn’t a company ruling but his own outlook. “My personal opinion – and this is my personal opinion, not a company one – is no, we’ll not launch another diesel car,” he said.

Leroy also explained his viewpoint was first established in 2014, when he signed off production of the C-HR without the option of a diesel powertrain. “We took the view, a long time ago, that we would not sell the C-HR with a diesel engine,” said Leroy.

“At the time, the distributors were against my decision. They said they needed diesel for the market. But we needed to follow the long-term trend of eco-vehicles,” he continued, adding that this decision was made even before the Dieselgate scandal emerged.

Moving forward, Leroy expects diesel vehicles to be slowly phased out across Europe with each product update. Several countries have announced plans to ban the sale of new diesel cars by a certain year, including Paris, Britain and the Netherlands, among others.

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Gerard Lye

Originating from the corporate world with a background in finance and economics, Gerard’s strong love for cars led him to take the plunge into the automotive media industry. It was only then did he realise that there are more things to a car than just horsepower count.

 

Comments

  • Michael Arulampalam on Oct 27, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    This is because Europe already confirmed diesel cars and diesel are bad for the environment and our health. Shockingly, this is based on Euro 6 diesel

    In Malaysia, we continue to use Euro 2 dirty diesel. This was banned in Europe in 1994 cause it was found to cause cancer ie carcinogenic.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 6
    • aziz zapin on Oct 27, 2017 at 4:07 pm

      go visit National Cancer Institute

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 2
      • Superman on Oct 28, 2017 at 11:51 am

        gomen got no focus. Still sell sulphur Euro 2 petrol. Kira racun ni

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
    • balldisc on Oct 28, 2017 at 8:52 am

      toyota’s hybrid has confirmed it has a very low emission on combined road cycle which is difficult to beat by diesels (the reason VW went cheating)

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
      • Heng Lee on Oct 29, 2017 at 6:11 pm

        toyota’s hybrid has confirmed that the production of raw materials fot the batteries leave deserts behind and pollutes the soil more than diesels could do in several centuries.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • 12yrsold on Oct 27, 2017 at 3:34 pm

    When cities like Athens, Mexico city, Madrid & Paris are banning diesels from their cities come 2025 to tackle pollution, U are better off concentrating on EV. I say that is a smart decision.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 0
  • Marieta on Oct 27, 2017 at 3:35 pm

    More diesel car for us la then, can sell cheap here?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 2
    • Muthusammy Loo on Oct 27, 2017 at 5:29 pm

      In Malaysia, more diesel car for us la then, more cars with thick black smoky exhaust for us (car maintenance here literally doesn’t exist), our life is so cheap here?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 1
      • ex-VGM staff on Oct 28, 2017 at 9:23 am

        the black smoke is actually not smoke, but dust particles residue (after burn product).

        due to rpm speed, the particle accumulates in the exhaust pipe. thats why in preparation for inspection, exhaust pipe cleaning is required.

        our diesel has high sulphur content, thus combustion resulted in the particles (reason for invetion of DPF or diesel particulate filter)

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 0
  • Controversial and probably unpopular thought around here: The torque and range advantage on Diesels are great but selfish advantage at the cost of higher NOx and NO^2 which are more harmful to the immediate public than petrol’s higher CO^2 emission. NOx caused smog and can cause people to have respiratory problems. Cancer cases in UK was on the rise just on the time when diesel was beginning to pick up popularity in the mid-naughties. Diesels are also more expensive to buy compared to their petrol counterpart, this can be seen in recent with the CX-5 and 3-series locally, also if you add the latest Diesels car with adblue or DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) Its an extra maintenance step over a conventional petrol engine.

    Toyota may be on to things when they decided to proceed with hybrids and petrol engines instead of re-investing on Diesels where European Manufacturer have a dominant foothold. hybrids and soon electric is the way forward, Tesla effectively shown than there is potential in EV cars and the slew of e-variants of BMW and Mercedes-Benz have shown that hybrids can be popular locally. Electric motors benefit from the insta-Torque characteristic similar to diesels and can compensate from the lack of low-down grunt a petrol gives in a hybrid system.

    Actually come to think of it, forget what I just said, when am is Malaysian government going to implement Euro 6 Diesels, I want to be sophisticated like the Europeans and cruise around in top spec CX-5s.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 1
  • kadajawi (Member) on Oct 29, 2017 at 5:31 pm

    Diesel cars can be made as clean (in real life!) or cleaner than petrol cars. They consume less fuel, are enjoyable to drive for normal people who don’t like to rev very high, and are more reliable.

    For Toyota it makes sense, because their diesel engines aren’t that competitive. But it’s pure, stupid, blind actionism by European politicians to go against the diesel. They could easily enforce that measurements are taken under realistic conditions, and punish cheating extremely hard. Diesel, and diesel hybrids could be a part of a clean future. The tech exists, it just adds a bit to the cost (which car makers weren’t eager to invest).

    It’s even possible to retrofit (some) older diesel vehicles to fulfill the strictest standards.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
 

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