Photo: Chevrolet
Ford has Power Stroke and EcoBlue, General Motors is with Duramax and Ecotec, and Fiat Chrysler relies on the EcoDiesel and MultiJet. All three of the Detroit greats have six- and eight-cylinder turbo diesels in their range of passenger cars, SUVs, and trucks, but it’s only Fiat Chrysler that decided to phase out Satan’s Fuel.
FCA announced at the Capital Markets Day 2018 that most of its brands would make do without diesel by the end of the 2018 – 2022 business plan, but FoMoCo and GM didn’t take the same stance as their brethren. Even though both companies are throwing money at hybridization and electric vehicle technology, both Ford and General Motors believe that diesel is still relevant to an extent in some applications.
On the flip side, the diesels these three manufactures offer in the United States aren’t even made stateside. VM Motori supplies Fiat Chrysler, the Power Stroke in the F-150 is made in the United Kingdom, and General Motors works its magic at the Powertrain Torino center in Italy. The Duramax inline-six in the Silverado was developed in Turin, and that’s saying something about how the cookie crumbles.
"We have an important strategy around diesel,” said Pierpaolo Antonioli, head of the center in Turin, to Automotive News Europe, referring to improving its relevance in the United States. “Everybody was caught a little bit by surprise by the [Dieselgate] scandal. It took time to react and start to say that diesel is not the dirty guy. In my opinion its reputation can be recovered," he concluded.
The truth of the matter is, General Motors took things one step further with diesel’s presence in the U.S. when the automaker decided to borrow the 1.6-liter from Opel for the Chevrolet Cruze and Equinox. But on the other hand, the days of compression-ignition technology are numbered. As a matter of fact, countries like France and the United Kingdom will bid farewell to fossil-fuel automobiles in 2040.
When all is said and done, diesel lives on borrowed time following the emissions scandal that sent Volkswagen to the automotive industry’s wall of shame. While it is possible to make diesel engines run clean, the costs associated with research & development and the complexity of these engines outweigh their advantage in terms of fuel economy over gasoline.
On the flip side, the diesels these three manufactures offer in the United States aren’t even made stateside. VM Motori supplies Fiat Chrysler, the Power Stroke in the F-150 is made in the United Kingdom, and General Motors works its magic at the Powertrain Torino center in Italy. The Duramax inline-six in the Silverado was developed in Turin, and that’s saying something about how the cookie crumbles.
"We have an important strategy around diesel,” said Pierpaolo Antonioli, head of the center in Turin, to Automotive News Europe, referring to improving its relevance in the United States. “Everybody was caught a little bit by surprise by the [Dieselgate] scandal. It took time to react and start to say that diesel is not the dirty guy. In my opinion its reputation can be recovered," he concluded.
The truth of the matter is, General Motors took things one step further with diesel’s presence in the U.S. when the automaker decided to borrow the 1.6-liter from Opel for the Chevrolet Cruze and Equinox. But on the other hand, the days of compression-ignition technology are numbered. As a matter of fact, countries like France and the United Kingdom will bid farewell to fossil-fuel automobiles in 2040.
When all is said and done, diesel lives on borrowed time following the emissions scandal that sent Volkswagen to the automotive industry’s wall of shame. While it is possible to make diesel engines run clean, the costs associated with research & development and the complexity of these engines outweigh their advantage in terms of fuel economy over gasoline.
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