Volkswagen’s Porsche is going to stop offering diesel versions of its vehicles, the unit stated on Sunday, refining its focus on hybrid and battery-powered vehicles instead.
Volkswagen has confessed that they cheated on diesel emissions tests, sending shockwaves through the auto industries and resulting in a sector-wide crackdown on polluting diesel engines.
“Porsche is not demonizing diesel. It is, and will remain, an important propulsion technology,” Porsche Chief Executive Oliver Blume stated.
“We as a sports car manufacturer, however, for whom diesel has always played a secondary role, have come to the conclusion that we would like our future to be diesel-free.”
Porsche’s present diesel customers would continue to be served, he stated.
Porsche, which is investing over 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) in electric mobility by 2022, stated that demand for diesel models was decreasing, adding their share of global Porsche cars was 12 percent in last year.
“We have never developed and produced diesel engines ourselves. Still, Porsche’s image has suffered. The diesel crisis has resulted in a lot of trouble,” Blume stated in a separate interview with weekly Bild am Sonntag.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is going to hold a meeting on Sunday to talk whether to require the auto industry to carry out expensive hardware upgrades for older diesel vehicles to decrease inner-city pollution, government sources stated.
Porsche has sold diesel versions of its cars for almost a decade, Bild am Sonntag stated. It has not had a diesel in its line up since February this year.
About 63 percent of the group’s Panamera cars sold in Europe are hybrid models, it stated. Porsche is going to launch the Taycan in 2019, which it says is its first fully-electric sports car.
