No diesel for VE, Falcon

HOLDEN has no plans to introduce a diesel-engined Commodore in Australia, despite doing the engineering work and producing an evaluation model.

Sales and marketing executive director Alan Batey said at last week's Melbourne International Motor Show there was currently "no business case for it".

"The technology is available," Mr Batey said. "Putting a diesel in a Commodore is not that much of a drama and we are going to do that from an evaluation and an engineering perspective – the issue for Australia is that there isn’t a business case for it." Holden last week launched a turbo-diesel version of its Captiva SUV, which uses a 110kW/320Nm 2.0-litre TDi jointly developed by GM Daewoo and Italian company VM Motori. Ford Australia also has no intention to produce a diesel version of its Falcon any time soon, with president Tom Gorman reiterating last week that "in the short-term, the answer is no".

"When we look at diesel for a locally produced vehicle, the first step for us, if we go down this path, is really going to be on Territory," he said.