Diesel Cars To Take 35 Per Cent Of Market

A report from the automotive research arm of Frost & Sullivan predicts that diesel engined cars will take up to 35 per cent of the western European car market by the end of 2002. Car makers are developing ever-smaller diesel engines, such as the 800cc turbo-diesel engine fitted in the Smart car. Companies such as Fiat and VW are known to be working on producing diesel engines below one litre capacity, while Japanese companies are targeting this ‘mini-diesel’ niche.

Toyota has said that it will use mini-diesels for its Yaris/Vitz/Echo Supermini range and Frost & Sullivan speculates that the Japanese company is targeting exports to Europe of up to 100,000 mini-diesels. The rationale behind the growing popularity of small diesel engines is driven both by the customer and the manufacturer. The customer wants lower vehicle and operating costs and car makers want to reduce the engine compartment size to make more room for passengers.

There is a trend too towards turbocharged direct injection engines for small performance vehicles. Frost & Sullivan sees the trend to smaller diesel engines continuing, starting from 0.6 litre compared to the present general 0.