Porsche Says ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Diesels in Wake of Dieselgate Scandal

Porsche, a unit of Volkswagen AG, announced on Sunday it would no longer offer diesel versions of its cars.

The move makes Porsche the first German automaker to drop the diesel engine following the 2015 Dieselgate emissions-cheating scandal.

“As a sports-car maker where diesel has traditionally played an inferior role, we have come to the conviction that we will continue without diesel,” the Stuttgart-based automaker said in a statement.

Earlier in the year, Porsche said that, by the year 2022, it would double its investment in green vehicles and that “every second new Porsche vehicle could have an electric drive – either hybrid or purely electric” by 2025. It is investing €6 billion ($7.05 billion) in electric and hybrid mobility technology.

After selling diesel models for almost a decade, Porsche stopped taking orders for new diesel-powered vehicles in February. In 2017, 12% of Porsche’s sales were for diesel models.

The Porsche Macan was the last car in the automaker’s line-up to be offered with a diesel engine, following the discontinuation of the Panamera 4S Diesel earlier this year and the Cayenne Diesel in 2017.

Porsche plans to release an electric sports car, the Taycan, next year.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)