Chevrolet has just announced that some time in 2013, it will launch a diesel-powered version of the Cruze in the U.S. The car will use a variant of the 2.0-liter four that’s installed in Cruzes throughout the world, but the company is otherwise silent on details, providing no further information on pricing, fuel economy, or output ratings.
Some markets receive a diesel Cruze with 163 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque, while others get a version with 148 hp and 236 lb-ft. Our bet would be for us to receive the latter—this is a small car, after all, and Chevy’s play here is to pump up its fuel-economy numbers. Whether the diesel-fueled Cruze will roundly trump the other small cars clustered around 40 mpg—including the Hyundai Elantra and Chevy’s own 42-mpg Cruze Eco, which the company assures us will still be sold when the diesel arrives—is up to the EPA. Considering that Chevrolet offers a six-speed manual transmission in all of the gasoline-powered Cruze models sold here already, we would expect that a row-your-own gearbox will be on offer for this new model, as well.
While we’d love to be able to run down a full spec sheet on the future diesel Cruze, the bare-bones info—a torquey diesel and a likely stick—is certainly enough to satiate us for today. Now, about that hatchback version of the Cruze . . .
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