Honda has insisted it is committed to the development and production of cleaner diesel engines for Europe despite recent media reports to the contrary.
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The company has recently changed its plans to develop a line of ‘clean diesels’ for the US and Japan using a new NOx catalyst, citing the high cost of meeting stringent US and Japanese emission regulations for diesels and the mid-2008 surge in diesel fuel prices in the US.
The company had planned to be launch a ‘clean diesel’ version of its Acura TSX (US equivalent of the European Accord) later this year as a 2010 model but has put that on hold and reportedly decided to develop hybrids instead of diesels for its larger models in the US, despite the failure of the earlier Accord hybrid to meet sales goals – it was axed after being offered only for the 2005-7 model years.
Honda’s president and CEO Takeo Fukui last December said: “To further enhance its product strengths in the small-size vehicle segment, Honda will make progress in the development of small-size diesel engines… To concentrate its resources on hybrid models and small cars, the introduction of medium to large-size diesel models in the US and Japan will be delayed.”
Honda said it had just celebrated the construction of a new engine plant to supply cylinder blocks and casting parts for the 2.2-litre diesel engines used in European models. The manufacturing facility, at Ogawa in Japan, will start production next autumn, following the installation and testing of machines and equipment.
Honda currently produces diesel engine cylinder blocks at its Suzuka factory in Japan, and will gradually transfer the casting and machining process of engine parts to the new Ogawa plant. The new Ogawa plant will then supply diesel engine parts to the Sayama factory, to go into the Accord for the European market. It will also supply diesel engine parts for Honda’s factory in Swindon, which produces Civic and CR-V models.
Ogawa is the latest environmentally-responsible Honda manufacturing facility. It has been designed to decrease the amount of CO2 generated in the production of each engine by 40% during the casting process, and by 25% in the machining process.
The plant has only one production line, but this ‘advanced flexible line’ can produce eight different types of engine, including the most sophisticated low-emission units.
Honda’s latest i-DTEC engine for the European Accord is an improved update of the -CTDi diesel engine used in Civic, CR-V and FR-V. It’s an all-aluminium, transversely mounted I4 unit with DOHC, four valves a cylinder, a variable nozzle turbocharger and a second order balancer shaft.
