Honda diesel cars to be withdrawn from the European market: reasons and objectives

The Japanese manufacturer’s gradual phasing out of diesel vehicles is due to increasingly stringent environmental regulations, including bans on diesel cars entering some European cities. Today, the company no longer sells diesel engines for the European versions of the Honda CR-V and HR-V crossovers.

And in 2021, with discontinuation of the current Honda Civic generation, the diesel versions will completely disappear from the European automotive market.

They will be replaced by hybrids and electric cars.

It is expected that by 2025 about ⅔ of all the brand’s models in Europe will be equipped with an electric engine as well as a petrol engine.

Even earlier than this, in 2019, a fully electric car based on the Honda Urban EV concept will enter the market.

Despite the sale of diesel engines being phased out, production of the 1.6 i-DTEC engine is likely to continue in the UK.

The engine will be installed on the versions intended for countries outside the EU that have less strict emission requirements: for example, Thailand, India, the Philippines.

The trend towards automakers’ moving away from diesel engines is dictated by new environmental standards aimed at reducing the concentration of harmful substances in exhaust gases.

According to the EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska, by 2020 the CO2 content in the exhaust should not exceed 95 g/km, while today's standards allow for 130 g/km.