CITROËN LAUNCHES THE SOLUTION
TO AUSTRALIAN DIESEL FEARS

Citroën has launched the diesel engine that could be the answer to the fears in Australia that cutting the cost of diesel could increase urban pollution, and the French car maker is prepared to share the technology for free.

The new Citroën diesel, to be seen in a new large car to be launched later this year, boasts a self cleaning filter that captures and destroys the microscopic particulates of unburnt fuel that are the chink in the diesel engine's environmental armour.

Building on the already highly advanced Citroën HDi engine fitted to the Citroën Xsara and Xantia models in Europe, the new engine is remarkably clean. The existing HDi engine cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent, carbon monoxide by 40 per cent and particulates by 60 per cent, compared to existing advanced diesel engines. It achieves this with the use of direct injection, a high pressure common rail fuel system and turbocharging.

The new system adds a new engine management system, a fuel additive system, and a porous silicon carbide filter in the exhaust system. This filter captures effectively 100 per cent of all particulates.

When sensors detect that the filter is nearing its maximum capacity, which happens every 400 to 500 km, an additive is injected into the fuel that lowers the temperature at which the particulates self-destruct and a small quantity of additional fuel in the exhaust system raises the catalyst temperature to the critical 450 degrees. The additive is a cerine-based product developed by Eolys and it has no negative environmental effects.

"The exhaust emerging from a Citroën with this new engine will have the same quality as the air that entered it," says project leader Pascal Lefebre. "This system is the greatest innovation in diesel technology since its original invention."

So far as the driver is concerned, there is no change in how the car performs during the particulate collection and cleaning process. A slight increase in fuel consumption is more than out weighed by improvement in fuel consumption endowed by the HDi engine.

The 2.2 litre engine produces 110 kW and 315 Nm of torque, ensuring good performance across the full speed range.

In launching the new technology, Citroën has decided to put the environment ahead of corporate profit. Despite a development cost of more than $100 million, the French car maker is making the technology available to all diesel engine manufacturers.

"We are making this technology available to all car manufacturers," says the CEO of PSA, Citroën's parent company, Jean-Martin Folz. "We believe that all diesel engines should benefit from this new technology, not just our own."

Meanwhile, European sales of Citroën's two key models, the Xsara and Xantia continued their dramatic increase in sales in the first quarter of 1999.

The Xsara rocketed from 57,000 in the first quarter of '98 to more than 74,000 in the first quarter of this year, while Xantia moved forward from 35,000 to more than 38,000 cars sold in Europe.

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5/5/99

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