ROME – Despite the EU’s attempts to accelerate its exit, diesel in Europe is still hard to die.
Of course, the demand for diesel cars is not comparable to that of a few years ago, when it was even higher than that of petrol cars. Now – according to the latest Acea data referring to 2021 – diesel in Europe occupies just 17.6% of the market, petrol 40.4% and alternative fuel vehicles 42%. However, in January 2022, according to an analysis by LMC Automotive, diesel in Western Europe raised its head, reaching a share of 19.8%, the highest since August 2021. And this in the face of a decline in demand for plug-in hybrid cars which, on the other hand, had registered – according to Acea – a sharp surge at the end of 2021, going from a decrease of 121.2% in the January-September period to an increase of 68.5% recorded from January to December . A surge that allowed hybrids with plug to reach an 8.9% share in 2021. A ride that, however, seems to have suffered a slowdown in January ” when – specifies LMC – the pressure to focus on electrified vehicles from the point of view of the CO2 objective was greatly reduced ”.
Leading the diesel recovery in Europe was Germany, where the share of diesel rose from 20.1% in December 2021 to 28.3% in January 2022. On the other hand, the share of fully electric vehicles (BEVs) was it almost halved, from 21.3% in December to 11.4% in January. In total, 147,000 diesel cars were sold in Western Europe in January, in line with the 6-month average and approximately 60,000 fewer units than those delivered in January 2021.
Among the five main auto markets, Italy was the one that recorded the largest loss in volume on an annual basis of diesel cars (-16,400), closely followed by France (-13,500). The United Kingdom instead lost 6,900 and Spain 3,800, while Germany, the first car market in Europe, saw the demand for diesel drop in January 2022 by just 2,400 units compared to the same month of 2021. In January also in Finland, Norway and the Netherlands have sold a few hundred diesel cars and – concludes the LMC analysis – “ they are unlikely to drop to zero this year, as diesel remains a popular choice especially for larger SUVs ” .