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Honda: Petrol engines to power ahead as diesels peak

Date: 18 May 2012   |   Author: Jack Carfrae

Honda has described its new suite of engines as "class-leading"

Honda believes that the stronghold of diesel engines for corporate sector buyers has reached its peak and that low-emission petrols could reclaim the lion's share of the market in the short-term future.

That's the view of Ed Hummel, Honda UK's corporate operations manager, who spoke exclusively to BusinessCar and said of fleets' penchant for diesel-engined cars: "Our view is that diesel is capping now and there might be a move towards petrol.

"What we're seeing is a trend towards customers reconsidering petrol and not automatically choosing diesel. Our customers are now being much more open-minded in terms of considering petrol.

"When you look at what's going on with small-capacity petrol engines, we see the market going that way and we've got the scale to really invest in it."

His comments come following the firm's announcement of its Earth Dreams series of clean engines, the first of which will be a 1.6-litre diesel unit available in the Civic in December. Hummel revealed that a series of clean petrol engines, also bearing the Earth Dreams moniker, is set to follow.

Although clean and economical engines are on the agenda for the company, Hummel maintains that decent performance is equally as important to keep them appealing: "Look at the 1.6 [Earth Dreams diesel engine] - we are going to be at 95g/km and 120hp. It will be a better story to tell in terms of power than the Golf Bluemotion and the BMW 1-series, which are sub-100g/km but aren't as powerful. We want efficiency but we don't want it to come at the expense of fire in its belly and a bit of oomph."

He also hinted that Honda would be bringing higher-power versions of the 1.6-litre engine to the UK market.

According to Hummel, the new CR-V 4x4 will be the next Honda to receive an Earth Dreams engine.

It is due for launch in October, when it will be powered by a 2.0-litre petrol unit and the same 2.2-litre diesel from the latest Civic, while the clean, Earth Dreams version won't arrive until October 2013.

He also said that the company has aspirations for the existing Insight hybrid now that it has been tweaked to emit 96g/km: "We're targeting city centre businesses with the Insight.

"It's an automatic, so it's a little different from a lot of congestion charge exempt vehicles. It's priced below the Prius and we're hoping for a reasonable uplift in volumes. We hope to sell about 1500 or so for the rest of the year in the true fleet market."

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