CTVNEWS

Diesel vehicles coming to Canada in a big way

Jeremy Cato Autos.CTV.ca
Published Sunday, September 25, 2011 11:57AM EDT

Barry Thomas replaces the diesel pump after filling up his truck at a gas station in Little Rock, Ark., Friday, June 6, 2008. (AP / Mike Wintroath)

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Nico Berg is looking for a big family rig with three rows of seats and his wife has already told him a minivan is out. No chance. Nada.

So that leaves some sort of crossover wagon or sport-utility vehicle.

"What do you think of the (Cadillac) Escalade?" says the North Vancouver physiotherapist of this massive SUV with the shiny grille and a base price of $85,935.

I tell him it's a pickup truck with a fancy body, a ride tamed by suspension tuning and lots of electronic gizmos and gadgets. But even the hybrid version ($95,080) is pretty thirsty, and this wide body is a nightmare to park at the mall.

"What about a diesel?" I counter.

"Aren't they smelly and noisy?" he counters.

In a word, no. Not any longer. I tell him to test drive an Audi Q7 TDI ($58,900 base) or a Mercedes-Benz GL 350 BlueTEC ($70,500) and get back to me. Neither is anything close to a minivan and either would fill his family needs and cut the fuel bill by 25-40 per cent versus a comparable gasoline-powered SUV. Now he's off to the dealership for a closer look.

Honestly, though, it's not a big surprise that Nico Berg is both skeptical and disinterested in a diesel family vehicle – expensive or otherwise. Diesels account for just 2.9 per cent of all the passenger vehicles on the road in Canada. Gasoline? It fuels 92.7 per cent of what's being driven by Canadians. And for the record, gasoline-electric hybrids account for a paltry 0.3 per cent, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

Those numbers are about to change, however, regardless of whether or not Nico Berg and his family join the diesel parade. A flood of new diesel-powered vehicles is coming between now and 2016, notes Dennis DesRosiers in his latest "Observations." Among the many diesel positives, he adds, is fuel economy. Case in point: during a recent Toronto-to-Quebec road trip, DesRosiers managed to average 6.2 L/100 KM in a Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTEC.

"Equally as impressive were the things it didn't do: smell bad, start hard or comport itself like anything other than the world-beating, kilometer-crushing torque monster it so clearly is," notes DesRosiers.

The challenge for carmakers such as Audi -- which DesRosiers notes has pledged to offer a diesel option in every model by 2015 -- along with Mercedes and others in the diesel game? Change perceptions similar to those held by Berg.

That is, back in the 1970s, diesel passenger vehicles were unreliable, noisy, smelly, smoky and gutless. A nightmare then, but no more. The Q7, the GL BlueTEC and other modern diesels are quiet and smooth, hugely responsive, loaded with torque and very fuel efficient compared to a gas rig of comparable size and weight.

Today, most of the SUVs sold by Mercedes-Benz Canada come with a diesel power train and Audi has trouble keeping up with demand for the Q7 TDI. Volkswagen Canada has a similar problem. Buyers of the Jetta and Golf TDI and other VW diesels keep snapping up supply faster that it can be filled. Not surprisingly, Canadians can expect to see more diesels in dealer showrooms.

"Rumblings have emerged from Mercedes-Benz regarding four-cylinder diesels being made available in its C- and GLK-Classes," he adds. "These will join six-cylinder models like the above-mentioned E350 BlueTEC (and a rumoured E-Class diesel hybrid) to increase M-B's CAFE rating."

Chevrolet has said it will offer a diesel version of the Cruze next year, we're already covered Volkswagen and even Mazda has promised to sell diesel vehicles in 2013.

It really is hard to argue against a diesel as a quick fix to improve fuel economy -- especially when diesel and gasoline fuel sells for about the same price in Canada. In Western Europe, where all fuel is outlandishly expensive, the Detroit News reports that diesel market share has recently soared to 55.3 per cent from 50.1 percent in the same period last year. Those figures came from Automotive Industry Data (AID).

Something similar is about to happen in North America, though diesel market share has much further to go. Bloomberg reports that Bosch Diesel Systems Marketing, North America is predicting diesel market share is about to jump -- to 10 per cent by 2015. J.D.Power and Associates is less optimistic, predicting diesel market share of 7.4 per cent by 2017.

The point is, diesel share, if you believe the experts, will more than double or perhaps triple by the time 2016 fleet-wide fuel economy regulations come into effect.

The diesel challenge for auto makers is to reduce the higher costs associated with engineering a diesel engine that is capable of meeting tough rules for particulate and oxides of nitrogen emissions. In the United States another issue is the somewhat limited availability of diesel fuel.

Barb Samardzich, head of product development at Ford of Europe and No. 2 globally in product development at Ford Motor, told me in Frankfurt last week that these are expensive hurdles to overcome. Nonetheless, Ford is looking closely at the potential for diesels in North America. That said, for now the company believes it can squeeze out adequate improvements in fuel economy by combining direct fuel injection and turbocharging in gasoline engines.

"We are monitoring this all the time, but for now we have no plans to add diesels to our passenger car portfolio," she said.

Yes, it's tough and expensive for carmakers to offer affordable diesels that meet gasoline-centric Tier 2 emissions standards, she said. That's why Ford is focusing on its EcoBoost direct injection/turbocharging approach, which when added to the V-6 F-150 pickup, tacks on just $1,000 to the price of an F-Series pickup with a V-8 engine -- while delivering more torque and a fuel economy improvement that can exceed 20 per cent.

Ford is eschewing diesels in North America -- for now -- because they represent a double-edged sword and there is a less expensive alternative -- EcoBoost.

As DesRosiers notes, "The nature of the diesel combustion cycle (lean burn, ultra-high compression ratio) lends itself to greenhouse gas reductions. The flip side of this is that diesels emit greater proportions of nitrous oxide and particulate matter than gasoline engines."

To clean up larger diesel engines, car makers add costly exhaust filters and urea injection systems. The added weight, maintenance and complexity of vehicles with these technologies are huge hurdles to overcome -- though not insurmountable. In Europe, staggered emissions standards allow fuel-efficient diesels to compete effectively with gasoline-powered cars and even hybrids.

As automakers scramble to meet those stiffening fuel economy rules, diesels are likely to emerge as a popular option – especially for buyers like Nico Berg who want size, space, power and upscale amenities. Ford may yet come to the diesel party here.

The key point here to remember is that the bigger the rig, the thirstier the rig and the thirstier the rig, the quicker the diesel premium can be recovered in fuel savings versus a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle.

The next chapter in the diesel story, then, is only now starting to be written.

Diesel-powered vehicles for sale in Canada:

Mercedes-Benz GL 350 BlueTEC