CAR MAKERS CAN’T AFFORD TO ACCELERATE DIESEL’S DOWNFALL

“THE ACTIONS OF some have severely compromised the credibility and trustworthiness of our industry. As a result, we now face tighter – and sometimes irrational – approaches to legislation.” So said BMW R&D boss Klaus Fröhlich, in the most thinly veiled of swipes at Volkswagen last week. He’s right: legislators’ responses to Dieselgate has been a hastily put together time frame for the demise of diesel (and petrol) from our roads. In turn, manufacturers have sped up the widespread roll-out of electric and electrified (hybrid) cars that was going to happen anyway.

Consumers are already shunning diesel: UK sales last month were 21.3% down year on year. But are manufacturers themselves now turning their backs on the black pump? With all the bold proclamations around the glut of EVS coming, car makers are forgetting that they need the continued sale of diesels to help fund development of new technology.

Car makers didn’t like the negative, ill-informed headlines around diesel but are now routinely making unhelpful claims that fail to highlight the difference between electrified and electric models to make themselves seen as angelic, Tesla-like makers of purely electric cars. Perhaps they need to find a way to spin diesel too.