Porsche to stop producing Diesel Engines in favor of Electric Vehicles

On Sunday, Porsche’s CEO Oliver Blume announced “… that there will be no more diesels from Porsche in the future.” He went on to explain that Porsche had stopped using diesel in its line-up since February and recent research shows that most diesel owners would willingly swap to petrol or hybrid vehicles. The Chief Executive also added that “Porsche is not demonizing diesel. It is, and will remain, an important propulsion technology.” He did assure Porsche’s existing diesel car owners that they would continue to be served by the company. The German sports car manufacturer under the Volkswagen banner will focus on manufacturing high-performance petrol models, hybrids and from next year luxury electric vehicles. In support of the expanding electric automotive industry Blume stated: “We as a sports car manufacturer, however, for whom diesel has always played a secondary role, have come to the conclusion that we would like our future to be diesel-free.” With that in mind, Porsche is investing billions of Euros in the luxury electric automotive industry and have promised 2019 to be the roll out of Taycan, a complete electric sports vehicle. This move is made to ensure that Porsche stays abreast of the changing mechanisms of the automotive trade. The “dieselgate scandal” that rocked Volkswagen in 2015, is the one of the reasons why Porsche will no longer continue with diesel models. Even though Porsche did not make its own diesel engines, the continuing aftermath of the emission crisis has affected Porsche’s image negatively. At a separate interview with the weekly Bild am Sonntag, Blume said: “The diesel crisis has caused us a lot of trouble.” The company saw a huge slack in demand for diesel models. And in 2017, the share of Porsche cars was at 12 percent worldwide. In some German cities, after a certain age, diesel cars are banned due to high level of pollution emission. Porsche’s parent company Volkswagen chose to disregard that law and installed “defeat device” software in their vehicles in order to pass air pollution testing. Volkswagen did this with over 11 million diesel vehicles between 2007 and 2015. Since the scandal broke Volkswagen has been paying billions in fines, compensations and settlements.