TOYOTA To Stop investing in Diesel Engines
Toyota is considering phasing out diesels entirely, Karl Schlicht—executive vice president of Toyota Europe—said in a recent interview with British magazine Autocar.
Stricter emissions standards are one reason for this potential change, Schlicht said, but Toyota also doesn’t find them to be particularly important to its bottom line.
The Yaris diesel model makes up less than 10 percent of the sales mix in Europe, and could be dropped without much negative impact, Schlicht said.
The company doesn’t currently sell diesel models in the U.S., but it does sell diesel cars in markets like Europe where there is significant demand for them.
But now those countries are paying the price in poor air quality, and several national and regional governments are looking to limit internal-combustion cars.
Last October, Toyota announced that it would reduce emissions from its cars 90 percent from 2010 levels by 2050.
That will likely be accomplished with a combination of hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell cars.
Toyota has promoted fuel-cell cars over battery-electrics, which it feels are too limited by relatively short ranges and long charging times.
