Speaking to Britain's Auto Express at the Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota Executive Vice-President, Didier Leroy, said strides made by the company based on petrol-electric hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains, makes its highly unlikely that it will equip any future models with engines featuring "out-of-favour-technology".
"My personal opinion - and this is my personal opinion - is no, we’ll not launch another diesel car. Of course, you could look at the much longer term but for now, for example, the recently refreshed Yaris that we started a few months ago, you cannot buy it any more with a diesel," Leroy said.
"We also took the view, a long time ago, that we would not sell the C-HR with a diesel engine. At the time, the distributors were against my decision - and it was my decision. They said they needed diesel for the market. But I said, ‘No! No! No!’ We needed to follow the long-term trend and that is eco-vehicles.”
At present, Toyota Europe buys most of its diesel engines from BMW aside from a heavily reworked version of the 1.4-litre mill powering the Auris. While still on sale in South Africa, the popular 2.2-litre engine found in the RAV4 has been replaced by a smaller 2.0-litre unit powering some BMW models, while Avensis and Verso use 1.6-litre units again made by the Munich giant.
