Huatai B11 – China’s first diesel sedan?
Diesel cars are all the rage in Europe, where their love of the black cancer causing fuel is just as strong as the Chinese love for rice and baijiu, but diesel passenger cars have never become overly popular in China. Diesel cars in China are limited to SUV’s such as the Greatwall Hover, and various Ssangyong models, Audi have reportedly made some moves to start selling TDI versions of their cars, and VW also sell diesel models in inland Chinese cities.
Out of the 7 million passenger cars sold in China last year, only 10,000 were actually diesel models, Huatai’s project manager was quoted by the Chinese automotive media as saying that diesel can save upto 30% more fuel over a gasoline model.
Huatai’s own diesel engines have reached Euro5 specification, and their automatic gearboxes have already begun production.
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Back in 2005 Beijing News reported that Huatai’s president Li Guanfan would completely rely on Hyundai technology instead of independent R&D, and strictly focus on the SUV sector. It’s obvious that Huatai has since made a departure from that thinking, but does Hyundai still have a hand in this new sedan technology?
dont hold your breath!
why has an emerging automotive market like China has largely rejected diesel technology
Steveo – Mostly due to the fact that existing commercial vehicle diesel engines were until recently large polluters, which can be blamed on the low quality diesel on offer in the Chinese market.
Ash,
Your comment’s interesting. Is it a different refining process or the additives that lead to low quality diesel?
You seem to suggest that the pollution issue has changed in recent years. Is this down to the diesel fuel changing or newer, cleaner diesel engines?
Hello Bob – there are multiple grades of diesel available in China: 10, 5, 0,-10,-20, -35, -50
0 and -10 are favored by the slim no of passenger cars that use diesel, -10 is used by CV’s. As for the other grades, I can only presume that these are used by commercial fishing fleets and other ocean going vessels, and probably heating oil in certain areas.
I feel the real reason that diesel never caught on was due to a constant shortage and also overly negative connotations attached to diesel engines (black smoke from older public buses). VW was probably one of the first car companies to introduce diesel passenger vehicles into the Chinese market with the Bora (1.8TDI – I think) and Jetta (1.9TDI) and later with the Audi A6, sales of these vehicles has never been tremendous and I believe the Jetta diesel was only really sold to Taxi fleets. Later Chinese manufacturers introduced diesel vehicles – Great Wall’s Hover, Chery’s 1.0L mini van etc but gasoline remains king.
Diesel fuel’s high sulfur content, a cause of particulate emissions, has been one of the major obstacles. The content has been reduced in China but is still much higher than the “ultra low” content in Japan and the West.