Honda to sell diesel cars in Japan by 2009

Tokyo, June 13: Honda Motor Co. plans to sell diesel-fuelled cars in Japan by 2009, the Nikkei business daily said, a move that could reignite the all but dead diesel passenger car segment in the world's third-biggest auto market.

While diesels make up more than half of new cars sold in Europe due to their relatively low emission of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, they have mostly been wiped out from passenger cars in Japan due to their poor image as dirty and loud.

But the powertrain is slowly gaining traction around the world since it typically gets 30 percent better mileage than gasoline engines, while tailpipe emissions have become much cleaner with new technology.

A spokesman at Honda, Japan's No.2 automaker, said no decision had been made on whether or when to introduce a diesel car in Japan, repeating the company's stance that it was simply under consideration.

Last year, Honda said it had developed a new and simple diesel powertrain that is as clean as gasoline-fuelled cars and would mount on it on a car for the U.S. market by 2009.

The Nikkei said Honda planned to introduce diesels also in Japan from 2009, and might speed that up to 2008. The engines would first be used in key models like the CR-V crossover and the Accord sedan, it said.

Executives at many Japanese automakers, including Honda President Takeo Fukui, have over the past few years warmed to the idea of a return of diesel-fuelled cars in Japan. Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. are also keen to see diesels challenge the green image that gasoline-electric hybrids enjoy.

Toyota Motor Corp., which controls more than 40 percent of the Japanese market, has been notably lukewarm on diesels for Japan and the United States, saying the cost of developing an engine clean enough to meet the upcoming strict emissions standards there would be prohibitive.

DaimlerChrysler AG is so far the only automaker to offer a diesel passenger car in Japan, through the Mercedes E 320 CDI sedan. The German automaker has said orders have surpassed expectations, hitting 1,000 in April since its launch in August.

Diesel cars' weakness has been higher exhaust levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), and carmakers are racing to come up with ways to meet what will be the world's toughest emission standards to be introduced in the United States this year.

Honda's new diesel drivetrain generates and stores ammonia within a two-layer catalytic converter to turn nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen.

Reuters>