Diesel going up down under

Somewhat surprisingly at a time when diesel engines in other parts of the world are losing ground in favour of petrol and alternative powertrains, things are different in Australia. Diesels are actually rising and petrol is suffering.

That's the result of a survey conducted by Roy Morgan. In 2017, 75.3% of new vehicles had a petrol engine but only 61.9% of buyers intend to buy a new petrol car in the next four years. Diesel is now the fuel of choice for 29.2%, a 5% increase compared to the previous year. Full-electric vehicles increase to 3.1%.

This survey is at odds with the declining popularity of diesel in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe. However, diesel engines in many European countries still account for a market share between 40 and 50%, substantially higher than in Australia.

The findings of Roy Morgan are not reflected by actual sales figures for the past 14 months which show a 20.8% drop for private diesel sales and a 6.6% drop for business sales. Most likely, this decline needs to be seen in light of the Volkswagen dieselgate scandal. Another factor is the fact that OEMs are closing the fuel consumption advantage diesel cars had over petrol variants.

In the survey and in real world numbers, electric vehicles went up substantially. Nevertheless, their market share remains well below 10%.

Image: traffic in Sidney