Sales of diesels in Europe are not going well. Although environmental zones are often forbidden to drive in for older diesels, the restrictions do not do wonders for the image. Moreover, hybrids are gaining in popularity. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) puts the numbers together today.
The number of new diesels dropped the most. In the last quarter of 2020, 729,446 new diesel cars found a home, but that number dropped to 358,083 in the last quarter of 2021. Only Bulgaria will inevitably continue to buy diesels. Looking at new sales for the whole of 2021, the market share drops from 27.9 to 19.6 percent.
So what do people buy?
It seems that diesel drivers are switching to hybrids. The market share of plug-less hybrids (HEV) is growing from 11.9 to 19.6 percent. Diesel and HEV are therefore exactly equal in European sales. Petrol remains a favorite with European car buyers. Of all fuels, petrol is the largest player with a 40 percent market share.
Electric car sales nearly doubled in Europe last year. Where the share of EVs was still 5.4 percent in 2020, it is now 9.1 percent. PHEVs grow from 5.1 to 8.9 percent.
What about the popularity of diesel in the Netherlands?
In the Netherlands, diesel has been on the decline for some time now. In 2015, dealers still sold 129,768 new diesel cars. In 2018 that was already about half and in 2020 the counter of diesels stood at only 12,963 registrations. Last year, the number of new diesels in the Netherlands even remained at 6,921 units, according to reports Automotive Management. In the Netherlands, 147,000 petrol cars, 102,000 hybrids and 64,000 electric cars were sold.
With the popularity of diesel at the pump, things are going well
Although the number of new diesels is declining sharply, gas stations still sell a lot of the stuff. This is partly due to the fact that existing diesels continue to run and, of course, to the fact that trucks, buses and many commercial vehicles run on diesel. In 2020, 57.4 percent of the fuel tanked was diesel and only 41 percent petrol, the Bovag reports. We have not yet been able to retrieve the figures for 2021.
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