Effective emission control makes diesel expensive. That means the end of its use in small cars.
It has already disappeared from the small car, now the diesel is increasingly withdrawing from the small car. Now Ford has also stopped the diesel engine in the Fiesta, in its place mild hybrid gasoline engines are to take on the role of economy engines. The main reason for the diesel cut in small Cologne cars is the increasingly complex and expensive exhaust gas purification. Customers in the price-sensitive small car segment do not pay the resulting additional costs.
Ford is not the first manufacturer to limit itself to gasoline and electrified drives in the Fiesta class. The trend started with Asian manufacturers who traditionally had few diesel engines on offer. Diesel engines have long since disappeared from Toyota Yaris, Nissan Micra, Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20 and Mazda2. Likewise with the lifestyle city runabout from Mini. Diesel no longer appears in the current price list for the VW Polo and Seat Ibiza either. The next generation of the sister model Skoda Fabia should go similar ways. Even in most small SUVs, the majority of manufacturers are now using gasoline engines alone.
Many private customers are unlikely to notice the elimination of small diesel cars. For them, the high surcharge for the economical engine design is usually not worth it anyway. The main customers were commercial users with a high proportion of urban traffic, such as courier or care services. They benefit more from the comparably low fuel costs in continuous use.