The head of Jaguar Land Rover’s operations in the U.S. said the automaker will stick with its plans to rollout diesel engines for its cars, including the Jaguar F-Pace next year.
Automotive News reported that CEO Joe Eberhardt said at a Detroit luncheon the automaker was “very confident” in the technology for its diesel cars.
“We are convinced of the benefits of diesels from a fuel economy and from an all-wheel drivability perspective, and that hasn’t changed,” Eberhardt said, according to Automotive News.
JLR plans to rollout diesels in most of its cars in the U.S., including the newly released diesel Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models.
According to the automaker, diesel car sales will comprise 15 to 20 percent of overall sales.
Roughly 22 percent of Volkswagen sales were diesel models before the Environmental Protection Agency notified the automaker that its cars used an illegal “defeat device” to cheat emissions tests. Volkswagen issued a stop-sale for its cars equipped with the non-compliant engine.
I think the hate will be confined to VW and the associated slight paranoia with other companies that may or may not have a problem (BMW, etc.)
Since JLR hasn’t sold a diesel here previously, by the time theirs come out the little news panic about diesel and/or VW in general will have died out, and they’ll be fine. America doesn’t hate diesel in general, they hate VW diesels. The customer for JLR diesel is also entirely different than that of VW diesel, as well.
Agreed. Having owned a diesel X5 for the last three years, I’d never buy another big heavy SUV without a diesel engine. Mine drives great and the fuel economy is not much worse than the GTI it replaced, the way I drive them (the newer ones with the 8spd transmissions get even better fuel economy).
Jag hasn’t released MPG ratings for the diesel f-pace yet, so they still have an opportunity to keep those expectations under control.
For a vehicle like the f-pace, I expect the V6 to be the big seller anyway.
I would argue that people who purchase Jaguar diesel are not interested in miles per gallon or being “green,” but rather, they buy the diesel because they like the power characteristics of a diesel engine. It’s totally different from a $25k VW.
I guess I am still a bit in the dark about the VW issue.
Is it JUST the small 4 cyl that has the cheating/emissions issue?
Or has this been updated to include the V6 as well?
The mentioning of the BMW 4 seems to have lost steam.
So…if other Diesels have been found to still be working out why not continue. The cheating of the VW 4 should not condemn all.
Yeah, it’s just the small 4 cylinder diesel. I had always wondered how VW complied without using urea injection, and now I know: they didn’t, they cheated.
As for the BMW 4 cylinder diesel issue, it seems like some German mag jumped to conclusions and retracted the story.
It now includes the V6 used in Audis (and Porsche SUV?).
I think the V6es have only been implicated of cheating in the euro market; the 2.0 diesels have been confirmed as cheaters worldwide.
I have only seen the 4 as actually listed.
I have seen other models and brands…but these all seem to have the 4 avail in their options.
The actually naming of any other engine is still not clear to me.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/09/breaking-epa-expands-emissions-investigation-to-volkswagen-3-0-liter-v6-diesels/
that is just expanding the investigation…not that they found any cheating.
An all-wheel drivability perspective?
Ha. Haha. Hahaha!!-
Don’t you know, there are no AWD vehicles which are not diesel. Or something.
I’m with Jack Baruth on this topic: http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a26891/the-end-of-diesel/
You just might be completely full of Obama when you say something like, “from an all-wheel drivability perspective.” I hope investing in diesel’s future starts a series of events that ends with JLR just being an unreliable memory.
I wouldn’t be so sure. The diesel JLR engines that the rest of the world has got (just not us) were known as the reliable, good option. The petrol versions there never were.
Diesel reigns elsewhere outside NA in SUV’s.Hybrids and EV’s are having a hard time.
Somebody’s afraid of Democrats…or black people. What a “HATER” remark! Don’t worry, the Republicans will get their turn to screw things up their way, eventually. Everyone gets a turn…or didn’t you learn that in Junior High?
I love how people complain about politics, on a site committed to car talk! Give me a break!
Keeping on topic…I hope the general public understands this diesel-gate is a VW thing, not applicable to other brands thus far.
I suggested to a friend in California who called me this morning to talk about his VW tdi.
I told him I think was was going to happen was VW would get fined by everybody. Then, in all likelihood, they would figure out how to program the testing to be set to on at all times. This would keep emissions at the accepted levels but result in poorer performance and/or MPG.
Then figure out the MPG failure or loss and how much this would be over a “lifetime…to be determined by lawyers) and then give a cash settlement to all TDI owners for this extra fuel cost.
The environment will be the last thing to be attended to since there will be no way to get the cars off the street and fix the problem so the diesel works to the correct emissions. That is unless the fuel cost money is greater than refitting the cars…which I doubt.
respectfully, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen.
I do think VAG gets fined massively, by everyone. That’s pretty much a given at this point.
As far as fixing the vehicles goes, the EPA fuel economy estimates were generated when the vehicles were running in “legal” mode, meaning if VAG just programmed them to always run in emissions compliance mode they’d feasibly return the mileage stated on the Monroney label, and thus, owners wouldn’t be owed anything. Their vehicles might not get the fuel economy or performance they got before, but that performance and fuel economy was never promised. As long as they’re achieving the Monroney numbers that’s all they’re legally required to do. They are not legally required to exceed them. With that said, you never know what a jury will do to punish someone they don’t like, and right now a lot of people don’t like VAG.
The problem is I don’t believe simply removing the cheat software and running the vehicles in permanent “EPA test mode” will work, or VW would have done that already. VW was notified of the issue by the EPA over a year ago. They actually tried software solutions, and the EPA kept quiet while they tried fixing it. If all it would take was reflashing the software to remove the cheat code (which would have cost VW almost nothing, espcially compared to the $55 billion and counting the scandal has) I am fairly certain they’d have done that during the past year instead of letting it totally blow up in their faces a year later. More than likely the engines can’t run in that “clean EPA test mode” for extended periods of time without a massive decline in drivability, or without sustaining damage, or both, and the only way they can actually accomplish the trifecta of emissions compliance, positive drivability, and long term durability is through a much larger (and waaaaaaaaaay more expensive) campaign to retrofit the same kind of exhaust cleaning systems that everyone else uses to do so. And the reason we are hearing about any of this today is that VAG and the EPA both know it, and that’s why the EPA stopped keeping VAG’s dirty secret.
” They are not legally required to exceed them.”
well…you are not legally allowed to cheat and in doing so make a false statement about your car.
This is what will force them to pay a payment to the consumers.
This is why Ford had to issue checks to buyers of their Cmax.
Could be you are indeed right that they did try this and it failed. But maybe not. They denied up until they suddenly broadcast it themselves.
Is it even possible to retro fit these cars??? Seems impossibly expensive. They would fight and win a settlement.
It seems to have lasted through long testing periods.
” They are not legally required to exceed them.”
well…you are not legally allowed to cheat and in doing so make a false statement about your car.
This is what will force them to pay a payment to the consumers.
This is why Ford had to issue checks to buyers of their Cmax.
Could be you are indeed right that they did try this and it failed. But maybe not. They denied up until they suddenly broadcast it themselves.
It seems to have lasted through long testing periods.
This helps with your position more…but doesn’t explain why they failed…
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/volkswagens-cheating-engines-cant-easily-fixed-vw-225206095.html
Not so sure about that. I think they run in “clean mode” only when hooked up for testing. The EPA tests are, I assume, run on a course in normal mode.
“Total Hatred”… Seriously?
” Total Hatred”?” Drive a Gas powered SUV in remote parts of Australia and you can feel total hatred for your vehicle
I was at a JLR test drive event on the weekend – the talking head before you were let out at the cars even acknowledged it wasn’t the best time to be bringing a diesel to the market, but they were going to do so anyhow (not that he said it, but I’m sure they’re eager to recoup the EPA certification costs), and then started talking about the Urea filter, and how they’re not in the same boat as VW.
And, I don’t love diesels all that much, but they had a Range Rover Sport Td6 on site they were willing to let people start up (sadly, not drive), and at a minimum, it doesn’t sound obnoxiously diesely, and revs plenty quickly. In a big heavy SUV, it makes sense (certainly more than the gloriously stupid F-Type sounding SVR they had parked next to it).
Since Jaguar knows how to make diesels run cleanly, maybe they can make a deal with VW to retrofit their cheater cars. Keep calm, add urea, and carry on!
Some diesel Land Rovers come with manual transmissions in Europe. A diesel manual Disco Sport would be OK, as long as they don’t find a way to screw it up… like have no fog lights with manuals or something.
Hatred? Really? Is the public so easily moved by emotion or is this just a media canard? Seems like one company played games to save $350/unit. Why damn all the others?
In the US at least, Jaguar is a veblen good. The only way the diesel will help them here is if it costs significantly more than the other engine choices-and even then only if everyone (at the country club) knows it.
Mr. Cole seems to be “trolling” his host site to generate clicks – otherwise there’s no reason for such a ridiculous/inflammatory/short-sighted article title.
The site’s founder used to do that, too, but he actually had valid points to make….
That said, in response to the actual topic, most recent diesel SUV reviews conclude with the author declaring the diesel to be the pick of the litter. This RR is no different…
Reminds me of a time, not long ago, when GM was putting bad diesel engines in many of it’s products. (80’s) Unfortunately, the whole fiasco turned many Americans away from all diesels, for many decades to come. A shame really. Diesel technology has come a long way….lets hope this VW Diesel-gate doesn’t do the same thing.