Literally on the back of the latest diesel engine scandal, Fiat Chrysler have announce that they will ditch the diesel motor from across their line-up by 2022. Following similar announcements from VW, Porsche and Toyota. Three of the largest automotive houses in the world. The updated four year plans, details of which will be available once announced on the 1st of June 2018, will say that the Automaker intends to phase out the problematic fuel source in the next four years. This would mean the periodically removing cars from all car under the FCA banner which includes brand names like Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Fiat.
Another diesel scandal! US Government sues Fiat Chrysler over Emission cheating devices
The paradigm shift away from diesel that started with governments and carmakers promoting diesel as a way of lowering CO2 emissions compared with petrol. But in the kick-back of VWs global scandal, a politically driven back lash against diesel had already begun. According to data from Jato Dynamics, the sales of diesel cars in Europe fell as much as 8% in Europe last year.
Incentive to make the switch for the FCA is driven by a rising cost of production, and increasingly tight emission rules not to mention the impending blade of the DOJs law suit hanging over their heads. In India as well, rising costs have encouraged manufacturers like Maruti to ditch small diesel vehicles by the 2020 BS6 target.
For the FCA, this involves a tougher shift considering that 40.6 per cent of all cars sold by the FCA in Europe were diesel, .2 per cent more than the previous year. Now while a large part of the European sales of diesel cars fell last year to 43% of all vehicle sold, Italy’s figures still show 56% percent diesel car sales. Bad news for the FCA who sell a large percentage of their cars in Italy. More than half of FCA’s European sales were in Italy. “This is because the Italian government has not taken a clear anti-diesel position and because Italy has the third most expensive gasoline in Europe,” said Felipe Munoz, global automotive analyst at Jato Dynamics.
