Suzuki And Mitsubishi Axing Diesels In Europe

Suzuki and Mitsubishi are moving to slash their range of diesel vehicles sold throughout Europe.

Nikkei Asian Review reports that Suzuki will halt sales of all its diesel models in Europe by the end of the year. At the same time, Mitsubishi will axe diesel vehicles from markets including the UK and Germany before likely cutting them from other European countries.

Suzuki ended production of its diesel vehicles in its Hungarian facilities earlier this year. For the year ended March 31, less than 10 per cent of the 281,000 vehicles which Suzuki sold in Europe were diesel-powered.

Similarly, Mitsubishi is shifting focus away from diesel models and has already stopped sales of diesel SUVs and passenger cars in the UK and Germany. Other markets, such as France, won’t have diesel Mitsubishi models available for much longer.

The companies are simply responding to demand.

However, unlike Suzuki, Mitsubishi isn’t ditching diesel entirely. Instead, the automaker will continue to sell diesel pickup trucks. Diesel vehicles accounted for roughly 30 per cent of Mitsubishi’s year through March 2018 sales in Europe.

European nations including the UK and France intend on phasing out the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040.

The decisions from the two automakers leaves Mazda as the only major Japanese automaker not culling diesel models in Europe.

Ever since Volkswagen’s dieselgate scandal in 2015, diesel passenger vehicles have fallen out of favor across the continental. In 2011, more than 50 per cent of new vehicles sold in Europe were diesel but this fell to 44.4 per cent last year. UK research firm IHS Markit expects this figure to continue to dwindle to just 35.2 per cent in 2022.