Fueling The Diesel Boom

Automotive Industries, Sept, 2001 by Alex James

Bosch, Siemens, Delphi and Denso battle for direct-injection supply supremacy as the diesel war escalates.

Robert Bosch Corp. has dominated diesel systems supply in Europe almost since Rudolf Diesel's very first engine a century ago. But Bosch's dominance is under siege. Diesels are rapidly becoming the passenger vehicle engine of choice across Europe, as buyers are seduced by attributes such as lower prices for diesel fuel and an average of 30 percent higher fuel efficiency. And advanced common-rail injection systems have transformed the image and the drivability of diesels, drastically reducing noise and exhaust emissions.

In 1997, the overall diesel share of Europe's new car market was 22 percent. It rose to 32 percent in 2000 and is predicted to be 34 percent this year (see chart). That represents 4.76 million vehicles -- an 11 percent gain from the previous year's record. For the first time, both France and Germany exceeded one million sales. And in a growing number of countries, such as France and Italy, you simply aren't a player unless your product mix has plenty of diesel offerings.

As the market expands, new suppliers, including Siemens Automotive and Delphi Automotive Systems, are gaining a foothold and challenging Bosch in every market segment.

Europe's diesel boom is as much about supply increasing to meet demand as it is about new players with new technology. The decision by Toyota to start assembly of diesel engines in Europe at the beginning of 2003 highlights the growth. It's expected to bring a fourth major supplier, Denso Corp., to the injection market.

Initially, Toyota's 1.4L common-rail diesel unit, developed for the French-built Yams supermini, will be built in Japan. But the plant will also supply BMW with diesels for its growing small car range (see cover story).

Ford Motor Co. is also cashing in on the diesel boom. It recently confirmed plans to turn the Dagenham plant in London -- currently in the run-out of Fiesta production -- into a high technology, diesel engineering and manufacturing center. Diesel engine production will be increased from 650,000 units a year to up to 900,000 engines by 2004 as Dagenham is established as Ford's global diesel center.

Ford is one company that misjudged the diesel growth. Now it is embracing it wholeheartedly with the lunch this summer and fall of a new common-rail engine for both Focus and Mondeo. Ford is so confident of the 115-hp 1.8L Duratorq engine that it is "'performance branding" the models TDCi and charging a premium over the standard 1.8L 90-hp Endura diesel Ford expects 50 percent of Focus sales to be diesel, about half of those will be the TDCi.

This is in line with most other forecasts. Ricardo, an engineering consultancy, predicts that sales of diesel cars in Europe will equal those of gasoline-fueled cars by 2010. Others are being less bullish, but even the lowest forecast puts diesel share at 40 percent.

One of the main drivers of this growth is expected to be smaller sub-2.0L diesels, thanks to improved technology and economy.

"The car buyer's choice today is fundamentally an economic one," says Ricardo's Martin Love, principal engineer for client technical support services.

Although the near 30 percent fuel economy and [CO.sub.2] emissions advantage between diesel and gasoline engines has always existed, the enormous improvements in diesel engine performance and refinement have tipped the balance in recent years and are steering large numbers of the buying public towards the diesel option.

Diesel pump prices, which across Europe are on average 16 percent cheaper than gasoline, merely heighten the financial advantage.

Frost & Sullivan, an international marketing consultancy, is more conservative. It forecasts that diesel will take as much as 35 percent of the Western European market by the end of 2002.

The small diesel engine is the growth segment, driven by customer concerns over [CO.sub.2] emissions and rising fuel prices. The new wave of smaller diesel engines driving the boom will have cubic capacities of as little as 600cc, says Sarwant Singh, European Automotive Group program manager at Frost & Sulllvan's London office.

A notable example is the new 800cc turbodiesel engine for the DaimlerChrysler Smart car, which can arguably lay claim to being the world's smallest passenger car diesel. Fiat is developing a 4-cylinder 1.2L turbocharged engine for the Seicento, the Punto, and the Lancia Y replacement, and VW is working on a sub-1.0L engine, according to Singh.

The newest engines

Diesels have earned a good image in mid- and upper-class applications, says Bosch, and this image is now being transferred to small cars. In June, Renault launched the face-lifted Clio with an all-new 1.5L turbodiesel with common rail injection, outputs of 65 hp without intercooling and 80 hp with intercooling.

At almost the same time, the 1.4L PSA/Ford joint venture turbodiesel was announced, using essentially the same injection system -- Delphi's "spherical rail' layout conceived by Lucas Diesel. This JV engine will be enlarged to 1.6L in 2003.