Hybrids offer great fuel economy, at least in theory. The same goes for diesel engines. With that, why aren’t there and diesel hybrids out there? Granted, there are mild-hybrid diesels out there, but if we’re talking about full hybrids with a diesel, there’s virtually no production car that offers that powertrain.
But Toyota would like to take a crack at it. The Japanese automaker is currently doing research on the viability of a diesel-hybrid powertrain. It sounds like a great idea, combining the efficiency of a diesel with electrification, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.
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“On a diesel engine you’ve got your low-end torque, whereas your electric motor would feed into a petrol. So that sort of complements the whole package. With diesel you’ve got low-end torque, [so hybrid assistance] might come on midstream and sort of support that through the drivetrain. But the difference versus and the engineering and effort to put it in is the challenge,” said Russel Tomlinson, Toyota Australia manager of research, evaluation and training to Australian motoring publication CarExpert.
In other words, the idea is sound but could be expensive to develop and engineer to a point that it might be too pricey to add as an option for its pickups and SUVs. The fuel economy benefit will be there, but at what price?
Mind you, there is one automaker that has made diesel hybrids work. More specifically, this company makes diesel plug-in hybrids for some of its models. That would be Mercedes-Benz, and it offers its 300de configuration in its C-Class, E-Class, and GLC-Class. In the C300de, its official fuel economy figures are as high as 71.4km/L in mixed conditions.
However, it’s significantly more expensive than the standard C200d that already gets decent fuel consumption. To give you an idea, the C300de nearly €20,000 (P1.25-M) dearer than the C200d. For those who don’t drive a lot of kilometers, the efficiency benefit isn’t worth the extra outlay.
Still, that isn’t stopping Toyota from giving it a shot. It’s not stopping its viability study and reckons a diesel-hybrid will greatly benefit the Land Cruiser and Prado. Only time will tell if the company can succeed in that task.
