Automotive News Canada - June 2018 - v2 - 22

* JUNE 2018

The thorn in diesel's side? EPA certification
Volkswagen, Mercedes
are out of market, but
five brands remain and
and Mazda wants in
By STEVE MERTL

VA N C O U V E R C O R R E S P O N D E N T

THIS MIGHT COME AS A SURPRISE,
but the diesel-passenger-vehicle market wasn't killed by the Volkswagen
emissions-cheating scandal.
Not quite, anyway.
The scandal, coupled with heavy
spending in electric technology and
tightening emissions policy on a global
scale, has possibly put diesel on a slow
road to oblivion.
But buyers still have more than a
cles, but rather that other automakers
dozen models from which to choose,
became collateral damage in the wake
with a couple more in the pipeline.
of stricter government oversight.
Volkswagen's diesel models
Mercedes-Benz withdrew its
once accounted for one-third of the
BlueTEC diesel offerings from the
total passenger-vehicle diesel marCanadian and U.S. markets in 2017,
ket in Canada. However,
citing lengthy delays getting
"Volkswagen Canada has no
new models certified by the
plans to re-introduce diesel
U.S. Environmental Protection
engines in any of our cars and
Agency and California Air
SUVs," said public relations
Resources Board.
manager Thomas Tetzlaff in
There were also reports the
an email to Automotive News
use of certain biodiesel fuel
Canada.
blends in the U.S. market, poten"Internationally, these
tially damaging to BlueTEC
engines are still on sale in varengines, was a factor. The comMercedesious markets and will remain
pany would not confirm this, but
Benz Canada a Mercedes-Benz U.S. technical
available for the foreseeable
President
future."
bulletin warns against using any
Brian Fulton
VW is developing battery
fuels containing more than five
says sales
electric vehicles based on its
per cent biodiesel.
modular electric toolkit archi- haven't
Mercedes-Benz Canada
slumped
after
tecture, expected to come to
President Brian Fulton said
the
brand
market in 2020, Tetzlaff said,
that while BlueTEC models
removed
adding that the company conwere popular among customits BlueTEC
tinues to refine its gasoline-fuers, sales have not suffered
diesels.
eled engines.
from their absence. No decision has been made about bringing
SLOW APPROVAL
them back.
It wasn't that the scandal ruined
So who does that leave?
the public's perception of diesel vehiNatural Resources Canada's

Mazda's effort to
bring a diesel
CX-5 to market is
bogged down in the
U.S. regulatoryapproval process.
PHOTO: MAZDA

DIESELS FOR SALE
Passenger-vehicle diesels
for the 2018 model year,
excluding pickups.
* Chevrolet Cruze (sedan/hatchback,
automatic and manual transmissions)
* Chevrolet Equinox (2WD, AWD)
* Jaguar XE 20d AWD (two variants)
* Jaguar F-Pace 20d
* BMW 328d xDrive (two variants)
* BMW X5 xDrive 35d
* GMC Terrain (2WD, AWD)
* Range Rover Velar
fuel-economy database lists 15 passenger diesels (plus six pickups) across
five automotive brands: Chevrolet,
GMC, BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover.
Mazda Canada plans to launch a
diesel version of the CX-5 utility this

fall, as a 2019 model. The model was
planned to debut here in 2017 but
remains caught up in the certification
process.

MORE BRANDS DIVING IN
Hyundai Canada says a diesel version of the Santa Fe utility vehicle has
been confirmed for North America for
the 2019 model year.
Passenger diesel sales in Canada are
hard to break out from total sales volumes.
Industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers
said his company calculates diesel
sales, including pickups, from data
released each July showing vehicles on
Canadian roads segmented by fuel type
and model year.
The last full year showed 55,490
2016 model-year diesels out of more
than 1.8 million vehicles, or three per
cent of the total. The numbers peaked in 2015 at 76,000 or four per cent of
the total.
Figures up to last July for the 2017
model year were 15,842 or 1.3 per
cent, suggesting a downward trend.
Interestingly, hybrids for the first
time outpaced diesels by a wide margin at 22,705 and 1.8 per cent. - ANC

Rivals Vancouver and Surrey
tag-team Smart Cities proposal
With $50 million
on the line, collaborating
on mobility gave the
cities a better shot
By STEVE MERTL

VA N C O U V E R C O R R E S P O N D E N T

VANCOUVER - COLLISION-FREE
corridors are the centrepiece of a
joint entry by Vancouver and suburban Surrey, B.C., for Infrastructure
Canada's Smart Cities Challenge,
which could net a $50-million prize.
The two municipalities, with populations of about 600,000 and 500,000,
respectively, are often rivals, but they
decided that teaming up provided a better shot at winning the lucrative prize,
said Jessie Adcock, Vancouver's chief
technology officer.
"We also thought that actually by
collaborating that the idea of replicability and scalability would be inherent
by design because it would be an idea
that would be executed in two communities," she said.
The proposal grew out of extensive

public engagement on priorities that
mattered to residents online, at community facilities and meetings with the
tech sector and other business groups.
"We felt that it was important before
we made any kind of decision to hear
what our residents had to say," said
Adcock.

SMARTER TOGETHER
Mobility is the focus of the proposal. It aims to show ways to create safer,
healthier and more connected communities while cutting emissions and
improving transportation efficiency
amid the region's rapid growth and
increasing congestion.
"As mobility started to emerge in
the engagement process, people started to get really excited around this
idea of smarter together, which is
sort of the culture we've kind of created now as a result of this collaboration," Adcock said.
The submission envisions two collision-free multi-modal transportation corridors using technologies from
smart-traffic control and lighting, to
autonomous vehicles sharing space
with mass transit, conventional cars,

Collision-free corridors between Vancouver and nearby Surrey, B.C.,
will use advanced data and analytics, a "smart mobility" infrastructure
and autonomous shuttles. I L L U S T R AT I O N : C I T Y O F S U R R E Y

cyclists and pedestrians.

'READINESS'
"We have a couple of target corridors in mind because one of the questions was around readiness in the full
application," said Adcock.
Ottawa's Smart Cities Challenge
aims to produce "meaningful outcomes
for residents through the use of data

and connected technology," according
to its website.
Adcock said the $50-million prize
would be seed money to spur more
investment to build the corridors.
Smaller communities vie for prizes of $5 million and $10 million.
Infrastructure Canada is expected to
publish a short list of competing cities this summer. - ANC

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