Peugeot has confirmed it no longer plans to offer a diesel hybrid engine, concentrating on plug-in hybrids and petrol-electric hybrids in the future.
The company’s CEO Maxime Picat confirmed that the technology, which currently features in the Peugeot 508 RXH, will be killed off.
“You have a really efficient diesel [engine] in terms of CO2 plus the hybrid but where you are in countries where there is no diesel you have to redevelop,” he said.
The company wants to offer the same engines in many different countries, and the combination of diesel and electric is not cheap enough to produce for the small number of markets that it appeals to.
“It is not efficient in terms of economy of scale and we know these new energies are costly to develop,” he said. “We have to make sure we have the same technical solution for Europe, for China, for Norway, for all the countries.”
Peugeot has recently stopped selling the Peugeot 3008 diesel hybrid in the UK, leaving the 508 as the only model that offers the technology. Picat did not say whether the diesel hybrid option would be pulled from the range before the 508 is replaced, but it will not be offered on any replacement for the car, which is likely to be on sale until 2017 at least.
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