Mercedes-Benz Debuts High-Tech Diesel Car for Canadian Market

With growing interest in diesel technology due to high fuel prices, Mercedes-Benz is debuting a new diesel-powered car for the Canadian market. The company will market the E320 CDI, as a highly fuel-efficient diesel version of its E-Class sedan. The E320 CDI is scheduled to make its market introduction in Canada as a model year 2005.

The turbocharged six-cylinder powerplant will feature full electronic fuel injection, considered technically impossible on a diesel until only a few years ago. CDI stands for Common-Rail Direct Injection – a term denoting the fuel line loop supplying constant, very high fuel pressure (up to 23,000 psi) to each of the six solenoid injector valves. The leap to electronic fuel injection means that the E320 CDI engine can be cleaner, quieter and more powerful than conventional mechanically injected diesel engines. Diesel powerplant’s inherently produce 20 to 30 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions and significantly lower carbon monoxide than gasoline engines, but historically, diesels have produced more oxides of nitrogen and soot or particulates. However, with precise electronic control of fuel delivery and an oxidation catalyst, the E320 CDI can pass current U.S. and Canadian Federal emissions standards. When low-sulfur diesel fuel becomes available in Canada in late 2006, Mercedes-Benz engineers are optimistic that the CDI diesel can meet emissions standards beyond the Federal requirements.

In the 1980s, more than 75 percent of the Mercedes-Benz cars sold in the Canadian market were diesel-powered, but in the 1990s diesel cars became a smaller and smaller part of the company’s product mix. Mercedes-Benz last offered a diesel car – the E300 Turbodiesel – in 1999.