Diesel comes at a cost: Kia

Kia could follow Ford's example and offer a volume-selling light-segment car with diesel power. The new Rio is available with a diesel engine in Europe and although it's listed with a manual transmission only, we're assured by Kia's National Public Relations Manager, Kevin Hepworth that the small car could be launched here with a diesel/auto drivetrain -- something rare enough in small and medium segments, let alone the light-car segment.

"If we were to take diesel, we would have availability of a six-speed automatic in that car," he told the Carsales Network. "I'm not saying we're going to, but if we decided to do a diesel passenger spec for Australia, [there] would be a six-speed automatic."

No confirmation that the Rio will be sold here with a diesel option then, but there seem to be few if any technical challenges standing in the way. And one stumbling block selling small diesels (lack of an automatic transmission option) is already overcome. As with any vehicle selling in the budget end of the market, the landed cost would be the major factor in the decision to sell it here.

Hepworth's colleague and manager of the company's Powertrain Engineering, Design and Testing in Europe, Dr Joachim Hahn was on hand at the Geneva motor show to explain why diesels are so costly to develop and build.

"Generally I cannot tell you about the price decision [for] the complete vehicle; I can only tell you that there is a reason why diesel engines are more expensive to build than gasoline engines -- and that is mostly related to the injection system.

"High-pressure diesel injection systems with solenoid or even piezo-electric injectors... that is really high technology. We inject the fuel [at] up to 2000bar, so the systems really have to be refined to work and that is, of course, pushing the price [up]."

So is the additional cost due to the extra R&D time, the costly materials -- or both?

"It is both. It is the R&D cost, but the R&D cost is not that important... the production costs of the pumps and the injectors are really high."

There's a reason for the production costs being so high. Plainly buyers want petrol-like refinement from their diesel passenger cars and the compression ignition engines must develop petrol-style performance without sacrificing diesel's renowned fuel frugality -- but the strongest pressure point on the cost of diesels seems to be the need to comply with more stringent emissions standards.

"We should not forget about the specific challenges for achieving the latest emissions standards -- that is, at least so far, a little demerit for the diesel engine," said Dr Hahn. "For the diesel engine we need a particulate filter to fulfil Euro 5, for example. Those particulate filters are not free of charge; [they] also cost money.

"That is the technical reason for the high price of diesel [engines]; I don't know whether there is also a marketing reason."

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