Pictures of the Future    Spring 2006

Heading for Diesel Hybrids

Interview with Robert Peugeot

Robert Peugeot, 55, is a member of the Executive Committee of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second-largest European passenger car manufacturer. He is responsible for the areas of innovation and quality. PSA Peugeot is the market leader in diesel technology. In February it presented a prototype of a diesel full hybrid car that is due for market launch in 2010

Have you already driven a hybrid car?

Peugeot: Yes, I’ve been driving hybrids for years. One car has already gone to market: the Citroën C3, which has a start-stop system. Here, an automatic system shuts down the motor when the car stops and reignites it with the help of an electric motor. I drove that car quite a few years ago and even then I felt that this technology has potential.

Can you imagine a day when we will have a fully electric drive and no more internal combustion engines?

Peugeot: I have difficulty imagining that—although PSA is one of the leaders in electric cars. Our market share is huge, but there is virtually no market. There are many obstacles: costs, low performance and reluctance on the part of administrations, enterprises and private customers. People are used to the freedom cars provide—including the freedom to make different sorts of trips, and not be restricted to cities or 100 km a day. Anything that limits autonomy and raises costs, such as the extra cost of electrical equipment and batteries ensures that believers stay believers and don’t become buyers.

What are the automobile industry’s most important goals?

Peugeot: A car is of course a complex machine and we have many issues, such as how to increase safety. But to get to the point, the main goals are to preserve freedom of movement and better protect the environment. This is why we are convinced that the diesel is important. Diesel engines are more fuel-efficient than gasoline engines. For roughly the same performance, we produce 20 % less CO₂ emissions. Because we must continue to reduce emissions, we must strengthen the role played by diesels—at least in Europe, where they already have a market share of 50 %.

What about pollution from soot particles?

Peugeot: A lot of progress has been made in this area. For example, regulated polluting agents have been reduced tenfold in the last ten years. Today’s soot pollution stems from old cars, not from Euro 4 cars. If all our vehicles fulfilled this emission standard, local pollution would be dramatically reduced. The particulate filter system launched by PSA Peugeot Citroën represents a major innovation that dramatically enhances air quality by eradicating particles.

You decided to develop a diesel hybrid. Why?

Peugeot: The answer is very simple. Today, hybrid is a buzzword—at least in relation to gasoline hybrids. At car shows around the world, every exhibiting company makes sure that it has a gasoline hybrid on its stand. It’s good for marketing, but we believe that gasoline hybrids have a potential market only in countries where the diesel isn’t properly represented—as in the U.S. Of course, a gasoline hybrid is more efficient than a gasoline car. But the diesel is an even more efficient engine. So we don’t see a business case for gasoline hybrids. After all, you get the same CO₂ emissions but the costs are much higher. European consumers are ready to spend extra money for a diesel car compared with a gasoline car. But the cost difference between a gasoline hybrid versus gasoline, compared with a diesel versus gasoline, is significantly higher. That might be different for niche cars or in other markets. But for our markets, and as a large-volume manufacturer, we don’t see many customers willing to pay a considerable amount of extra money for this technology.

What are advantages of your technology?

Peugeot: Our planned diesel hybrid uses a 1.6-l HDi engine. In tests it used only 3.4 l of fuel per 100 km. In addition, it emits only 90 g of carbon dioxide per kilometer. We plan to introduce this car because we believe that Europe’s automotive tax system and people will want to bring about a significant cut in carbon dioxide emissions, and that combining a diesel’s performance with the efficiency of a hybrid is the best way to achieve that goal.

What are current average CO₂ emissions?

Peugeot: The average in Europe is roughly 160 g/km. And the common voluntary target of European manufacturers is 140 g/km by 2008. But I’m not sure that this will be easy to reach.

You plan to enter the hybrid market in 2010. Isn’t that too late? Toyota has had hybrid cars on the road for years.

Peugeot No, that’s not too late. We don’t believe there’s a business case for gasoline hybrids in Europe. So we’re not losing money by not having these cars in our showrooms. Our business case assumes two things. First, that there is a real trend to reduce CO₂ emissions. Second: The present technology is not ready for the market. A significant research effort must be made to substantially reduce costs.

What developments are necessary?

Peugeot: Our project is based on using existing technology from our platform. We are using an existing diesel engine and a automated mechanical gearbox.

Is the gearbox a prototype?

Peugeot: No, it will be available in one of our next cars, an MPV that will be introduced in late 2006. It’s an electronically managed gearbox with a hydraulic control and no clutch pedal. It is very efficient and fast, and is therefore ideal for our diesel hybrid because it offers the best trade-off between fuel economy, acceleration, braking, driving comfort and pollution control. Other features, including the batteries, the electric motor and the motor management system, require more research. In these cases we won’t be able to use existing parts. The costs are still too high, and must be significantly reduced.

How much more would a diesel hybrid car cost?

Peugeot: We assume that European customers would be prepared to pay roughly the same premium they now pay for a diesel car compared with a gasoline car. Obviously, it depends on the car in question. For example, our 1.6-l diesel Peugeot 206 costs about 2,000 € more than its gasoline counterpart.

How big is the team behind your hybrid?

Peugeot: It has been a medium-sized team for quite a few years. But when we move forward, we will be embarking on a major project that will probably cost a few hundred million euros..

How many cars do you expect to sell after 2010?

Peugeot: We are convinced that we can sell tens of thousands of cars per year. That’s not comparable with a full blown model, which is more in the range of 100,000 units per year. But it’s a start at a credible level. It reminds me of the start of the particulate filter. There we had exactly the same incremental approach. Now we have a three-year lead over everybody else. When we introduced the system in 2000, we didn’t want to sell it to just a few opinion leaders. But we also didn’t want to go from zero to several million systems overnight. So we chose a middle path. This allowed us to bring all the suppliers together and achieve a real automotive solution. Today, there are more than one million cars with particulate filters on the road, and everyone agrees that the strategy worked.

                                                                      Interview by Nobert Aschenbrenner