Five brands that have already forgotten about the diesel engine and others that will

Although its consequences still linger, five years have passed since the Dieselgate scandal broke in the press. An issue that got Volkswagen into serious trouble first, but then spread to other brands and exposed the tricks these carmakers used to mask their real pollutant emission figures. It was so damaging that some brands decided to put an end to the production of models with diesel engines and forget about this type of mechanics altogether. These are the five main brands that did so.

smart

The maker of small city cars was one of the first to give up diesel engines. At that point the diesel offer came down to a 0.8-litre three-cylinder engine fitted to the Fortwo and a 1.5-litre unit in the Forfour. From the third generation onwards, no diesel variants could be found. To be fair, they also decided to drop the petrol models and turn to electric mobility.

Lexus

Another major brand that has dropped diesel engines. It has not been very fond of this type of mechanics, since it only had two models with a diesel variant: the IS 220d, with a 2.2-litre engine and 177 CV, under the Euro 4 standard, and the IS 200d, with a 2.2-litre block and 150 CV under the Euro 5 standard.

In 2013, before Dieselgate, it had already decided that it would not continue with diesel engines and chose to bet on hybrid variants, which today play an outstanding role in the brand’s range.

Suzuki

In this case it was indeed Dieselgate that led the Japanese brand to question the value of these engines. It chose to focus on cars with mild and conventional hybridisation and abandoned diesel engines. Summer 2018 was when the last diesel cars of the brand disappeared, and it is now impossible to find a new Suzuki model that uses one of those engines.

Porsche

Diesel was no stranger to the German brand. At one point it used diesel engines sourced from Audi in several of its models, but it eventually decided to abandon them. The models that used diesel engines were the Panamera, the Cayenne and the Macan. They used V6 and V8 engines, but little by little they got rid of them and replaced them with petrol engines and hybrid mechanics.

Honda

Another Japanese manufacturer that has decided to stop making diesel engines is Honda. It announced it would stop producing them in 2018 and that by 2021 there would be no model using them, but in the end they stopped producing them well before that. Petrol engines and hybrid mechanics have improved greatly and are sufficient to deliver the efficiency the brand is after.

Brands that will drop diesel

Diesel is also in the crosshairs of being discarded in the coming months or years at other brands. Volvo, for example, has announced that it will stop using them in its models, although they can still be found. Ford, the PSA Group and FCA also want to stop producing them, and in the not-too-distant future we will stop seeing diesel engines. They are expected to be history by 2030, although they have proven to be quite clean and efficient. Time will tell.