Although General Motors has already confirmed that the diesel-powered Chevrolet Cruze it plans to introduce to the North American market next year will come with a version of the 2.0-liter engine it sells in Europe, that mill’s recently-unveiled 1.7-liter little brother might give us some hints as to what the bowtie crew is up to.
GM took the wraps off of its new European-market Cruze wagon last week at the Geneva Motor Show, and under the car’s facelifted hood was a new 1.7-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel engine. With 130 horsepower and 221 lb-ft. of torque, that engine would almost certainly be sufficient to motivate the Cruze up to class standards.
But GM told Cars.com that North American buyers will be offered a 2.0-liter turbodiesel instead. GM stated last month that the VM Motori-designed engine is currently undergoing development in both Michigan and Europe. VM Motori is jointly-owned by GM and Fiat, but it has supplied various global vehicles with diesel engines over the last few years, including the short-lived Jeep Liberty CRD.
A revised version of the 2.0-liter was also quietly introduced in Geneva. It boasts 265 lb-ft. of torque and 161 horsepower in its European configuration, although those figures will likely change with the adaptation of various emissions add-ons to meet U.S. standards.
Both the 1.7 and 2.0-liter engines use start/stop technology with their manual transmissions in Europe, and it’s likely that GM will employ the same tech in this market with an automatic transmission as well. GM hasn’t stated whether a Cruze diesel stick shift is in the cards for us, but relatively strong demand for the gas-powered Cruze manual transmission models makes it a distinct possibility.
Tackling the Jetta
GM told Ward’s last year that it was hoping the Cruze diesel would straddle the line between performance and efficiency, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon (or a diesel engineer) to realize that GM wants to take on the only diesel compact currently offered in the U.S. and Canada: The Volkswagen Jetta TDI.
In the past, more than a third of all Jetta sales have been diesels, but the car’s 30/42 mpg fuel economy isn’t actually all that impressive in the face of the similarly-rated Chevrolet Cruze Eco manual transmission.
Clearly, GM realizes that buyers are going to have to be wooed by more than just decent fuel economy, so the Cruze diesel will likely be marketed as a Euro-inspired combination of performance and high fuel consumption.
We should learn more about the Cruze diesel over the course of the next few weeks. At the very least, look for it to hit the market in just over a year’s time.
