Honda Puts A Brake On Diesel Engine Development – Report

Kuala Lumpur: Honda Motor Company has reportedly decided to put a brake on the development of diesel engines due to falling demands of such engines in North Amerian and Chinese markets. As reported by CarAdvice, Takahiro Hachigo, Chief Executive Officer and President of Honda Motor Company has said that the company will not force the technology on markets that simply have no interest in diesel-powered vehicles.

“In Europe as well as in Asia, we are selling diesel engines to a certain extent, but what will happen in the future is really up to what our customers want to see,” says Hachigo.

“Looking at the world today — especially in major markets like North America and China — the ratio of diesel (demand) is small. Given this fact, rather than try to develop diesel engines for the global market, I think we would have to consider the requirements of individual regions and come up with diesel engines where required, and the type of engines that are wanted,” he added.

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Considering the CEO statement, it's obvious that Honda will not neglect markets where diesel cars are still widely used. But the falling demand of diesel-powered vehicles in its major marks could lead the Japanese automaker to divert its focus on the exploring other technologies for its powertrain developments. And given what we have seen in recent times, it can be concluded that the company has moved into this direction already. Besides launching a new range of turbocharged three and four cylinder engines, Honda is busy in developing petrol-electric plug-in hybrid powertrains. Also, at the ongoing Tokyo Motor Show, the automaker has unveiled its production-ready hydrogen fuel cell car – the Honda FCV, which stands tough against Toyota Mirai, when it will go on sale in sale in next year.

Furthermore, Honda has also introduced a new 10-speed torque converter automatic transmission to allow fast driving and low fuel consumption for the future front-wheel drive Honda models it will feature in. Reports say that the gearbox would be capable of supporting powertrains of up to 370 Nm of torque or more.

Undoubtedly, Honda is busy in developing various technologies for the powertrains of its latest and next-gen vehicles and apparently none of these developments seems to include diesel engine in the powertrain. We can't conclude whether the on-going Volkswagen Dieselgate Saga has led Honda to put a brake on its diesel engine development, but it will not do anything good for the customers, particularly those in major markets like U.S., potentially losing interest in diesel powertrains en masse.

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