Currently reading: JLR boss launches staunch defence of diesel
Ralf Speth backs diesel as a technology and says its continued success is crucial for the whole European car industry

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) boss Ralf Speth has launched a fierce defence of diesel cars and attacked the demonisation of modern diesel engines, which he believes to be incorrect.

Speth told Autocar that his company would be doing more to promote modern diesel technology, and said that its continued adoption would be crucial if the industry was to meet the every stricter emissions legislation imposed upon it.

“The latest diesel technology is really such a step in emissions, performance, particulates; it’s better for the environment when compared to [an equivalent] petrol.  Diesel has to – needs to – have a future.”

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Speth believes that the issue of diesel emissions is one for the entire transport and automotive industry, not just one related to cars, as diesel is the effectively the sole power source used for commercial vehicles, lorries, buses and taxis, all of which are big contributors to air pollution, particularly in major cities, saying: "the complete automotive industry needs diesel to fulfil legislative requirements”.

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Speth highlighted the distinction between older diesels and newer ones, with modern diesels being much cleaner and meeting current legislation. Reporting on diesel has lumped the technology old and new together as a whole, he believes, and has led to the demonisation of the technology as a whole, which Speth believes to be incorrect.

“Anyone can see the black smoke coming out of old diesels is bad. We need to replace them with newer ones.”

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Speth said the cleaner emissions of modern diesels is the important bridging technology in ensuring emissions continue to fall before hybrids and electric cars really hit the mainstream. Widespread adoption of hybrid and electric cars is needed for the industry to meet stricter legislative emissions targets, but the industry was instead seeing a shift back towards petrols.

“It’s bad for the industry, bad for Jaguar Land Rover, and bad for Europe,” he said. The last point is key, as Speth said that the European car industry more than anywhere else in the world is reliant on diesel cars, and moves away from them would impact the continent’s ability to meet targets.

Speth hinted that he believed the start of the demonisation against diesel can be traced back to the Volkswagen Dieselgate emissions scandal, on which he said: “This kind of manipulation software is not acceptable. Unfortunately, the whole automotive industry suffers, not just Volkswagen.”

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Education is now needed on modern diesel technology and to promote its benefits, Speth believes. “Nobody believes the automotive industry anymore,” he said. “They see us as offenders and not giving the right information. We have to show our technology is the best you can buy, to reduce the damage to health and the environment.”

Speth said there would be no specific date when diesel-powered cars would disappear. “ICE to ACE – internal combustion engine cars to autonomous, connected, electrified ones – will happen in parallel. There’s no switch. You can’t say diesel will go in 2020. We need to develop both, internal combustion diesel and petrol engines, in addition to battery electric vehicles.”

Speth believes that battery electric vehicles will prove to be the key future powertrain technology, with about 25-30% of JLR’s sales planned to be of electric cars by 2025. By 2020, half of the company's models will offer some form of electrification, ranging from mild hybrids to fully electric cars, such as the Jaguar I-Pace. Speth doesn’t see a future for fuel cells, however, believing them to be “poor from an environmental point of view”.

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“The future is pure battery electric vehicles,” he said. “No other technology will bring that freedom.”

He called on the British government to do more to support the development of battery technology, and bring together academia to help achieve it. At the moment, Speth says JLR will be buying in all of its battery technology from Asia, as there simply is no provider in the UK.

“It’s not for JLR to lead, the UK should do a lot better. Academia should be working on the challenges of modern mobility. We’re on an island, and the technology is too big to transport.

“The UK needs a manufacturer. It has missed an opportunity to be ahead in modern mobility. We have the best universities, we know the future is battery electric vehicles, why not use their skills? We’d buy batteries from here tomorrow," he said.

Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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rhwilton 7 May 2017

If JLR wants customers to

I can't speak for other drivers, but I'm getting 60 mpg from my 163PS Ingenium diesel. Even if I really press on, I struggle to make it drop below 50. Of course the standard numbers are higher. They are an artificial laboratory test. I never expected to get those numbers. I was hoping for a very economical car that could still do 130 mph on the autobahn, and that's what I got.
TBC 7 May 2017

Customer

It's a customer lead business, so I guess it pays to defend the sort of products your customers want to buy. I assume once Tesla starts making a profit, others will no longer see thie rproducts as a niche. As for the UK government, if you want to promote an alternative, you need to promote the the infrastructure to support it.
torovich 6 May 2017

How to regain trust

I agree, modern diesels may be have much to be offer for some years to come. However, the industry will not regain trust without full transparency and atonement.

It is common knowledge that most if not all manufacturers manipulated emissions tests to make vehicles look cleaner in the test cell than on the road. This includes EU5 vehicles (where the main motivation was to protect the engine from damage) and EU6 vehicles (where the additional motivation was to reduce Adblue consumption).

But none of them have owned up to their sins on Europe. They all hide behind loopholes in the legislation to protect themselves from prosecution and costly retrofit costs.

But they all new what they were doing. They all knew that their vehicles were polluting massively, but they chose to ignore it and set off red herrings left right and centre. Instead of developing solutions, they developed cheats. They have only themselves to blame for the demise of diesel. If they want to revive it they need to be transparent and not treat us like idiots.

torovich 6 May 2017

How to regain trust

I agree, modern diesels may be have much to be offer for some years to come. However, the industry will not regain trust without full transparency and atonement.

It is common knowledge that most if not all manufacturers manipulated emissions tests to make vehicles look cleaner in the test cell than on the road. This includes EU5 vehicles (where the main motivation was to protect the engine from damage) and EU6 vehicles (where the additional motivation was to reduce Adblue consumption).

But none of them have owned up to their sins on Europe. They all hide behind loopholes in the legislation to protect themselves from prosecution and costly retrofit costs.

But they all new what they were doing. They all knew that their vehicles were polluting massively, but they chose to ignore it and set off red herrings left right and centre. Instead of developing solutions, they developed cheats. They have only themselves to blame for the demise of diesel. If they want to revive it they need to be transparent and not treat us like idiots.