According to the words of senior Renault executive Thierry Bollore, in the view of new, increasingly tougher emission regulations and testing procedures, diesel engines simply aren't economic enough to stay in production. The decision was apparently made during the July internal meeting, after the French automaker reviewed its strategic plans and costs of meeting the higher standards after the Volkswagen scandal.

It will be interesting to see, how the decision - if things roll out according to the current plan - will affect Renault's sales, since more than 60 percent of 1,6 million cars, which were delivered to customers last year, were diesels. The change will not happen immediately. In fact, the first steps were already taken by abandoning diesel engines in Renault's smallest model Twingo. According to plans, diesel engines should also be removed from Clio, Mégane ans some other models by 2020.