Cadillac’s diesel program, which we’ve been reporting on for the last couple of years, remains firmly on track, Car and Driver has recently learned. The luxury and performance brand has been working on four- and six-cylinder diesel engines for several upcoming models, but the sale of General Motors’ European subsidiary Opel to the French PSA conglomerate, itself a maker of diesel engines, had cast doubt on Cadillac’s future plans. That’s because the new engines were supposed to be shared with future Opel models, and developing diesel engines solely for Cadillac would be far too costly.
But the future of the new engine generation is secured: Opel cars will still be fitted with the new generation of GM diesel engines. The supply agreements are in place, and development has progressed far down the path to production. “The diesel program has been affected, but not catastrophically,” we were told.
The four- and six-cylinder diesels are earmarked for several of Cadillac’s upcoming crossover/SUV models, and they are sorely needed to help the brand make a more meaningful impact on the market in Europe. In the premium-SUV segment there, the take rate for diesels still far exceeds that for gasoline engines.
And Cadillac may still bring those diesels to the United States. The brand will continue to monitor diesel offerings from BMW and Mercedes-Benz as well as GM’s own Chevrolet Cruze diesel. Audi, Porsche, and VW have yanked their V-6 TDI engine from the U.S. market in the wake of the VW Group’s diesel emissions-cheating scandal, leaving a gap waiting to be exploited by the competition.
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