Citroen celebrates this Christmas - Thanks to Rudolf

With Christmas just around the corner there’s one Rudolf that we can be thankful for – but it’s not the red-nosed reindeer. This December, Citroen is celebrating the 10th birthday of the UK’s very first common rail diesel powered car, and is raising a glass to Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the engine that bears his name, who was born 150 years ago.

Citroen’s credit crunch defying C1 1.4HDi recently achieved 84 mpg in independent testing and it’s economy like this that is making diesels more attractive than ever. In 1998, only 15% of total UK car sales were diesel, whilst recently that figure has been closer to 50%.

And now, history has come full circle – with a dash of irony. Rudolf Diesel’s first engine was designed to run on vegetable oil; whilst today’s Citroen HDi engines can run on 30% biodiesel without modification. And there’s a bright future as well for clean, green diesel models. At the 2008 Paris Motor Show, Citroen revealed the Hypnos concept car which showcased new diesel Hybrid engine technology which will be available on the Company’s future models.

It was in December 1998 that Citroen launched the Xantia HDi, which featured technology that enabled cleaner, more economical diesels and later facilitated the fitment of a Diesel Particulate Filter System, which virtually eliminated particle emissions.