Diesel market share decline in Western Europe

author: FutureCar Staff    

The diesel share of new car sales in Western Europe experienced a slight decline in August. This was largely influenced by a strong result in Germany for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which was driven by the removal of subsidies for company BEVs starting from September 1, 2023. As a result, there was a surge in BEV registrations in August, causing a corresponding dip in sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, including diesel. GlobalData suggests that if it weren't for this, Germany's diesel car share in August would have been 4pp or 5pp higher than it actually turned out.

The provisional August diesel share for the region, including hybrids, was recorded at 15.0%, with a few smaller markets yet to report their data. So far in 2023, the diesel share stands at 16.5%, which is a decrease of 0.2pp compared to the year-to-date figure for July. In August, 120k diesel cars were sold, bringing the total for the first eight months of the year to 1.265 million units. This figure is virtually unchanged from the sales during the same period in 2022.

Despite the distorted August figures in Germany, it, along with Italy, has seen larger diesel markets in 2023 compared to 2022. The only significant decline was observed in France, where diesel sales are down by nearly 50k units year-to-date. However, this decline has been offset by a similar-sized increase in Germany and an almost 40k rise in Italy. The recovery from a weak base in 2022 is a contributing factor, but the overall trend in diesel share remains negative.

FutureCar Staff