The New Cadillac Diesel Engine Likely Won’t Be Offered In America
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General Motors launched the Cadillac XT4 in Europe last year with a market-exclusive 2.0L four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine that is good for 170 horsepower and a healthy 280 pound-feet of torque.
The new four-cylinder diesel, which was developed specifically for the European market and is Euro 6-compliant, aims to offer a good balance of performance and fuel economy in the subcompact XT4. That could potentially make it an attractive option for the North American-spec XT4, but the automaker currently has no plans to bring the 2.0L diesel to the U.S. or Canada.
Speaking to our sister site, Cadillac Society, Cadillac President Steve Carlisle said the demand for diesel engines is too low in North America to justify bringing the 2.0L diesel XT4 here.
“For the moment, it’s for Europe,” Carlisle told Cadillac Society. “It’s something that we could bring here [to the U.S.], but when you look at the interest in diesel engines in anything but large vehicles in the United States, it’s been up and down and pretty down at the moment, whereas Europe is a different story and has been for a while.”
The 2.0L diesel is the only engine offered in the Euro-spec Cadillac XT4, where it is paired with the GM nine-speed automatic transmission. The Cadillac XT4 Launch Edition is priced from 42,900 euros in Germany, while the better-equipped XT4 Launch Edition Sport starts at 49,200 euros. Front-wheel-drive is standard on both models, while Cadillac’s twin-clutch all-wheel-drive system is available as an option.
For reference, the Cadillac XT4 sold in North America features GM’s turbocharged 2.0L LSY inline four-cylinder gas engine, which is good for 235 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque in the crossover and is paired with the same nine-speed automatic transmission. The EPA rates the front-wheel-drive Cadillac XT4 at 24 mpg city, 30 mpg highway, and 26 mpg combined, while adding AWD will see those figures drop to 22 mpg city, 29 mpg highway, and 24 mpg combined.
Shortly after the diesel-powered Euro-spec Cadillac XT4 was announced last year, we hosted a poll asking readers if they thought the 2.0L diesel should be offered in the North American version of the crossover. About 60% of pollsters voted yes, while just over 36% thought it wouldn’t be a good idea.
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This post was written in collaboration with our sister publication, Cadillac Society.
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Finally GM brings Diesel to Europe. But at a time Diesel is on a downward trip. They should have done that move 15 years ago. But at that time they were just talking.
Yet another GM CEO Mary Barra mistake like the Blackwing V8, spend tens of millions to develop an engine that will NEVER be used in the home market; this new diesel engine should be made available to Chevrolet or GMC if Barra doesn’t think the engine fits Cadillac’s image.
Vast majority of Cadillac customers (including myself) dont want diesel. The take rate would be to low. No surprise here .
Until the government gets involved.
Lets see the take rate if you had to pay a $5,000 Gasoline Pollution Tax.
The only way to change that is the federal government has to push the market back towards small cleaner diesels like Europe.
Raise the Gas tax
Cut the Diesel Tax
Slap a $5,000 pollution tax on Gasoline engines and offer a $2,500 tax credit for Diesel Engine vehicles.
How many do they sell in Europe either? The total sales of new Cadillac vehicles in Europe for 2019 was only about 600 vehicles. Seems likely that JdN had bigger plans for Cadillac in Europe, but he’s gone now, so sell what you can “there” and then punt, certainly no point in having a diesel XT4 here.
diesels never have sold well in the usa unless it is in a HD pick-up do not be stupid
I had a VW Passat diesel (bought back by VW) and I now have a BMW 5-Series diesel (discontinued). Simply put, new generation diesels are an amazing combination of performance and efficiency. A diesel XT4 would definitely peak my interest in considering the Cadillac brand.