Reputations are hard to shake in the auto industry. Take, for example, Jaguar. Its cars are still known for reliably breaking down, an image reinforced by a Mad Men character’s failed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning when his new E-Type wouldn’t start. And then there is diesel fuel. For many Americans, it's still the stuff that fueled smelly, lumbering Oldsmobiles and VWs in the 1970s and '80s.
But Jaguar Land Rover (the two married in 2008) has enjoyed strong showings in recent JD Power dependability rankings, and modern diesel engines are so clean and quiet that most consumers wouldn’t be able to distinguish a diesel from any other car on the road. Hell---diesels are even kicking ass at Le Mans.
All of which places Jaguar Land Rover’s plan to sell diesel versions of most models at an interesting crossroads: Beyond convincing wealthy buyers that it’s not making lemons, the automaker must convince them to embrace diesel.
Starting with model year 2016 cars, Jaguar Land Rover customers will have the option of picking a diesel instead of gasoline engine for their new car. The brand isn't talking price points yet, but in most cases, a diesel powertrain costs a few thousand dollars more than the gas version. The option will be available on nearly every car in the brand's lineup in the next few years.
Diesel offers gobs of torque, that wonderful force that translates to acceleration. More importantly, it’s richer in energy than gasoline, so it leads to better fuel efficiency. The automaker says the diesel versions of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport that will be first out of the gate will deliver 25 mpg, a 32 percent improvement over their gas-powered brethren.
“The introduction of diesel is one big element in terms of our longterm quest toward reduction of fuel emissions and increase in fuel economy,” says Rob Filipovic, Jaguar Land Rover North America’s product planning manager. “That goes hand in hand with government regulations.”
That second part is important, mostly because the typical sports car or luxury SUV buyer doesn’t much care about the price of gas. And “if they’re environmentalists, they’re thinking Tesla,” says Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. But Jaguar Land Rover has to meet federal CAFE standards, which require an automaker's fleet to average 34.1 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 MPG by 2025. (Yes, a change in EPA testing means the 2016 number is closer to 26 mpg, but still, the trend line only goes up.)
The diesel play is backed by customer demand, Filopovic says. “We’ve done a lot of monitoring of the market,” he says, and this is a “well-informed move.” It helps that Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW have been pushing diesel with moderate success here in the US, so Jaguar isn’t starting from zero in terms of customer awareness. When the time comes to start sales, it will rely on media, public relations, and its dealer network to evangelize the other fossil fuel.
That’s big, Brauer says, because if Jaguar Land Rover wants to hit its CAFE numbers (and avoid paying fines to the feds), without eating the cost of developing a new engine and putting in a whole bunch of cars, it has to make sales happen.
