Toyota And BMW Forge Diesel Alliance

by Bertel Schmitt

November 25th, 2011 10:21 PM

German-Nipponese alliances are not going out of style, the Volkswagen/Suzuki soap notwithstanding. Toyota and BMW cut a diesel deal – if The Nikkei [sub] is correctly informed. They ran the story very early in the Japanese Saturday morning; hence no comment from Toyota is available. We’ll ask on Sunday, when we’ll see that mysterious RWD sports car.

According to The Nikkei, BMW will supply diesel engines for Toyota’s passenger vehicles sold in Europe. When and how many is unclear.

Toyota is betting heavily on hybrids, but Europeans are hybrid-averse and prefer diesel instead. Not having diesel options misses more than half of the market. However, with only a 4 percent share of the European market, spending too much time and money on diesel engines does not make sense for Toyota.

BMW on the other hand needs the volume, and is willing to sell diesel engines to anyone with money. “Toyota is expected to share its technologies for hybrid systems and related areas if requested,” says The Nikkei.

#BertelSchmitt #BMW #Diesel #Germany #Japan #Toyota

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Inside Looking Out on Nov 25, 2011

This answers the question "Why European buy lousy quality French cars while ignoring higher quality Japanese car". It not because French cars are particularly interesting to drive (and repair).

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- Zykotec on Nov 25, 2011
  
  I have to disagree, most bigger French cars are quite interesting to drive. Just check up on who builds Rolls Royce's suspension parts, and also builds a car that doesn't lean in corners, and can still do speedbumps without noticing at quite decent speed. And interesting to repair? They can be a mindboggling challenge to do the (normally) simplest maintenance jobs on, if that isn't interesting I don't know ;)
  
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- CJinSD on Nov 25, 2011
  
  @Zykotec Boge used to build Rolls Royce OE shock absorbers pre-buyout. It would make sense if they still do.
  
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- Spike_in_Brisbane on Nov 26, 2011
  
  Can I suggest you try a new Citroen C5 3 litre, dual turbo diesel. Not only is the engine quiet and smooth it feels like you are being launched off a carrier. (Engine by Peugeot) The same car has the very interesting Hydractive (Hydro/pneumatic) suspension for a magic carpet ride. Different? sure. Interesting? very. And it's a sweet ride.
  
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- Colin42 on Nov 26, 2011
  
  @Spike_in_Brisbane Actually the v6 diesel used by Citroen was designed by Ford. The Ford / PSA diesel partnership has PSA build diesels below 2.2 ltrs and Ford above 2.2 ltrs. This is the same diesel as used by Jaguar & Landrover
  
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Nvdw on Nov 26, 2011

It would be interesting to see which diesel engines Toyota is after - the transverse 1.6 and 2.0 engines as found in the Mini, or the longitudinally mounted 2.0. If Toyota is no longer interested in developing their own diesel engines because of the enormous costs involved, and BMW seeks extra volume, then I guess transverse it is. Toyota was actually quite ahead of its time with their AD diesel engines, with NOx reducing catalysts and such, but getting those engines up to Euro6 scratch while driving CO2 emissions down takes huge expenses, and probably even a completely new engine family.

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- Colin42 on Nov 26, 2011
  
  The 1.6 is a PSA unit sold to BMW for the mini
  
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- Nvdw on Nov 27, 2011
  
  @colin42 It used to be up until 2010. All One and Cooper D models now have a 1.6 built by BMW, derived from the 2.0 unit. The petrol engines are still the Prince engines developed and built in cooperation with PSA.
  
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Tekdemon on Nov 26, 2011

Really odd that BMW bought diesels from Toyota and now Toyota is going to buy diesels from BMW. Though I guess with a 4% market share I could see why they don't think it's really worth the trouble. I'm guessing they just mean car diesels here since they still have plenty of diesel truck motors out there.

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Luke42 on Nov 26, 2011

I'd love to buy a diesel-powered or hybrid-powered Sienna here in USA, around the time kid #3 is born. Both options would have big advantages depending on my situation (and my other car) when the time comes.

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