Holden Captiva wins price war, but what about economy?

Holden may have won the price war with significant cuts across the new Captiva softroader range, but Ford is determined to win the fuel economy battle with its new diesel Territory due in April.

Ford Australia is yet to submit final numbers to the Federal Government for the diesel Territory's official fuel rating label.

However based on data that is about to be submitted a Ford spokesman told the Carsales Network the Territory seven-seater all-wheel-drive "will be lower than 8.3L/100km", the figure for the equivalent seven-seater all-wheel-drive Captiva diesel.

"That's for a 2.2-tonne, seven-seater, all-wheel-drive," the Ford spokesman beamed.

If this indeed proves to be true, the revelation will likely come as a shock to Holden, given the Captiva 7 is about 200kg lighter than the Territory and has a smaller engine with fewer cylinders.

The Captiva 7 has an all-new 2.2-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder engine made by General Motors in Korea, whereas the Ford Territory has a 2.7-litre V6 turbodiesel made by Land Rover in Great Britain.

The Carsales Network understands that the fuel figure for the Ford Territory diesel all-wheel-drive may only sneak under the Captiva 7 diesel all-wheel-drive figure by the narrowest of margins.

What's not clear is how the diesel 2WD versions of both vehicles will compare; the Captiva 7 2WD diesel is currently rated at an impressive 8.1L/100km.

"Customers care about economy," says Holden powertrain chief engineer Simon Cassin. "We've made some significant reductions with this all-new diesel engine, and it translates into excellent real-world economy, too."

Holden fuel economy engineers aren't standing still, however. They are already working on calibrations for model updates over the next few years. "Our work has only just begun with this engine," Cassin says.

Holden predicts that diesel Captivas will represent more than 70 per cent of sales now that it has an all-new engine with better refinement and responsiveness.

"Previously we've had a 50:50 split between petrol and diesel, but we see that increasing in favour of diesel with the new model," said Holden boss Mike Devereux. "Fuel prices at the time of buying the vehicle have a huge effect on diesel demand, but our feedback is that buyers really want diesel powertrains for these types of vehicles."

It's likely there will be a fuel economy battle between the petrol six-cylinder versions of the Territory and Captiva, too.

The current Territory AWD petrol six-cylinder has a fuel rating average of 12.5L/100km, but the just-released Captiva V6 AWD has a fuel rating average of 11.3L/100km -- which is even less than the Territory 2WD petrol model's average of 11.6L/100km.

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