PSA/Peugeot-Citroen to sell diesel hybrids in 2010

[DmitryKo]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...S&srch=Peugeot

Peugeot to Launch Diesel-Based Hybrid Cars
Fri Jan 6, 2006 3:05 AM ET

By Marcel Michelson

PARIS (Reuters) - PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) will unveil two demonstrator models for diesel-based hybrid cars, which seek to cut emissions and reduce fuel consumption, that the carmaker expects to be on the market from 2010.

France's second-biggest carmaker said on Thursday it would show off a Peugeot 307 and a Citroen C4 demonstration car with a hybrid diesel system on Jan. 31.

The announcement coincides with a call by French President Jacques Chirac to develop such cars within 10 years.

Hybrids burn less fuel by adding one or more electric motors to a standard petrol or diesel engine. The batteries help power the vehicle and recharge by capturing energy during braking.

Most hybrids, which were pioneered in the volume car industry by Japanese manufacturers, are currently based on petrol, while in France most new cars use diesel.

Chirac called on Thursday for the development of diesel-based hybrids at an affordable price for consumers.

This would be a way for the country to cut its dependence on hydrocarbons in a time of rising oil prices, and to move toward its goals to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

PSA Chairman Jean-Marie Folz and Education Minister Gilles de Robien will open a research center for the development of fuel cells at Carrieres-sous-Poissy, northwest of Paris on Monday.

Folz has been dismissive about the current generation of petrol-based hybrid cars, saying as recently as the Frankfurt Motor Show in September that current diesel engines where more fuel efficient and emission-friendly than petrol hybrid cars.

U.S. group General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has unveiled an Opel/Astra Diesel concept vehicle with a hybrid system. Diesel hybrids have been used mainly for city buses or submarines, due to the size of the engines and their relatively high cost.

[DmitryKo]

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../60131006/1111

PSA/Peugeot-Citroen to sell diesel hybrids in 2010
Automotive News / January 31, 2006 - 11:00 am

PARIS -- French carmaker PSA/Peugeot-Citroen on Tuesday unveiled two demonstration vehicles powered by diesel-hybrid engines and said it wanted to sell tens of thousands of them annually from 2010.

PSA has long stayed out of the race to bring gasoline hybrids -- combining a combustion engine and an electrical motor -- to the market because it thinks clean diesel engines alone can provide performance on fuel consumption and emissions that is comparable to gasoline-hybrid engines.

The two demonstration cars -- a Peugeot 307 and Citroen C4 -- are in the highly competitive compact car segment and their fuel consumption is cut to 69.2 mpg, or 3.4 liters per 100 kilometres.

For the moment, however, the cars are too expensive.

"Our objective is to reduce the cost by a factor 2.5 to 3 so that the difference a consumer has to pay for a diesel hybrid is the same as that between a petrol and a diesel car -- because the gain in fuel economies and emission reduction is the same," CEO Jean-Martin Folz told reporters.

The cost difference between the demonstration vehicles and a conventional diesel model is about $9,700, or about 8,000 euros at current exchange rates, now and has to be cut to $1,800 to $2,400 (1,500 to 2,000 euros).

PSA's system combines a 1.6-liter high-pressure diesel injection engine with a particle filter and a stop-start system that switches the engine off automatically when the vehicle stands still.

At low speeds, such as in towns, the car can drive entirely electrically with low noise and very low pollution, while at higher speeds the diesel engine kicks in.

But even on highways, when the diesel engine is the main power source, the electric motor can provide an extra boost for acceleration when overtaking another vehicle.

[asim]

Haha...as I read this I'm in French class. =]

[Gixx]

Originally Posted by asim

Haha...as I read this I'm in French class. =]

French class in Houston???

[01cavalier]

Nice, diesel hybrids. Could really get great mileage...hope the cost can realistically be worked as low as they want.

[give_it_all_]

I wonder how good they are on fuel with the hybrid then.

[SUPERBADD75]

i've been hoping someone would do this, but unfortunately we won't see it here. this should be quite an efficient setup so long as the diesel gets decent mileage on its own. even though the Prius doesn't get the mileage that the EPA says it does, it's still better than most everything else in its class, so seeing what a diesel hybrid will do should prove to be rather interesting.

[DmitryKo]

The 1.6 L diesel in a production Citroen C4 gets 5 L per 100 km in combined cycle, so if they're also referring to a combined cycle when they say it reaches 3.5 L per 100 km, it's a 1.5 times improvement.

http://www.citroen.com/CWW/en-US/RAN...TORISATION.htm


But then diesel engines are already priced $1500 to $3000 higher than gasoline engines of similar displacement, so if you take a typical price of a gasoline C4 and add another $2000, that's $3500 higher than a gasoline car. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you won't return this investment just by spending even 3 times less on the fuel, just like it happens with the Prius

[SUPERBADD75]

Originally Posted by DmitryKo

The 1.6 L diesel in a production Citroen C4 gets 5 L per 100 km in combined cycle, so if they're also referring to a combined cycle when they say it reaches 3.5 L per 100 km, it's a 1.5 times improvement.

http://www.citroen.com/CWW/en-US/RAN...TORISATION.htm


But then diesel engines are already priced $1500 to $3000 higher than gasoline engines of similar displacement, so if you take a typical price of a gasoline C4 and add another $2000, that's $3500 higher than a gasoline car. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you won't return this investment just by spending even 3 times less on the fuel, just like it happens with the Prius

here in the States, i don't think hybrid technology is all about saving money, it's about making us less reliant on foreign oil. if we can buy cars that double our fuel mileage over traditional gasoline powered ones, we can effectively cut our oil demand in half. the less oil we get from the Middle East the better. plus, dropping oil demand would make prices go down as well.

[DanCBJMS1988]

Wait a minute! Since this is a PSA engine, and the HDi/TDCi diesel engines were jointly developed by Ford and PSA, would there be a possibility of these diesel hybrids making their way into Ford cars, such as the next Mondeo?