DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler group is to test-market diesel-powered Jeep Liberty [exported as the Cherokee] SUVs in the United States and Canada from 2004.
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While DaimlerChrysler offers a range of diesel-powered passenger vehicles in Europe, where approximately 35% of vehicles are powered by diesel engines, the Liberty will be the first light-duty sport-utility vehicle with a diesel powertrain to go on sale in the United States and Canada.
Chrysler expects to sell about 5,000 diesel Liberty models in the first year.
The diesel Jeep Liberty will be powered by a 2.8-litre common rail turbo- diesel engine produced by DaimlerChrysler’s Detroit Diesel division. It will be available with manual or automatic transmission, as well as two- or four-wheel drive. It is expected that the diesel-powered Liberty will have up to a 30% improvement in fuel economy compared with a petrol-powered version.
Chrysler president and CEO Dieter Zetsche told the DaimlerChrysler Innovation Symposium in New York that the United States could reduce its oil use by approximately 800 million gallons and carbon dioxide emissions by eight million tons annually if Americans purchased diesels at the same rate as Europeans.
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By GlobalDataZetsche also called on regulators and oil refiners to work together to resolve diesel emissions challenges that will be tested by new tailpipe standards that will go into effect in 2006.
US vehicle makers have been lobbying for diesel fuel in the United States that is as clean as in Europe, where it contains only about 50 parts per million of sulphur. The more sulphur in the fuel, the more the engine pollutes.
American diesel fuel contains an average of 330 parts per million of sulphur, Zetsche said. Last year, 0.18% of American cars – mostly built by Volkswagen – and 2.7% of light trucks were sold with diesel engines, according to WardsAuto.com.
“The best way to show our commitment to work together is to bring a modern, clean diesel passenger vehicle to market, which we intend to do,” Zetsche said. “We would like to see the oil refiners commit to producing and distributing high quality, low-sulphur fuel as soon as possible, while the government creates incentives for fuel producers to get clean diesel fuel to the market before the deadline.”
“Today’s modern diesel vehicles should be part of the solution to improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions,” Zetsche added. “Diesels lead to up to a 30% improvement in fuel economy, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions an average of 20%.
“While there are legitimate concerns about the particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) exhaust from diesels, the introduction of high quality, low-sulphur diesel fuel will enable a reduction of these emissions,” Zetsche said.
DaimlerChrysler currently offers diesel engines in its Dodge Ram heavy-duty trucks in North America. Approximately 75% of the trucks sold there are diesel-powered.
But diesel acceptance as the fuel of choice in high-volume passenger vehicles in North America has been another matter, thanks in large part to some ill-fated attempts in the 1980s to introduce diesels there.
“The technology of the time left a bad taste in the mouths of many,” Zetsche said, “and a lot of bad memories of smokey, smelly, clattertrap cars.”
Around the world, the Chrysler Group currently offers diesel engines in the Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Voyager minivans. In Western Europe, diesel- powered vehicles comprise 56% of Chrysler’s total sales volume.
Diesel Cherokee models currently account for 65% of that line’s total sales in Western Europe.
