Green Car Congress: Western European Passenger Car Purchases Shifted to Higher Share for Small Cars, Lower Share for Diesels in 2009 Purchase decisions should be based upon one's requirements. But I find it curious that Euro diesels are seeing a decline in market share: Bob Wilson
Quite the curious event, considering how popular diesels are in Europe. Any information on what they are being displaced by?
Displaced by gasoline cars. Diesels are more expensive to purchase, though fuel and maintenance are lower. More expensive cars don't do well in a downturn. When the economy picks up they may be replaced growing hybrid shares, and we should be seeing some hybrid diesels as well.
We have way too many diesels here in Europe, it's a good thing that the trend starts to go down, let's hope it stays that way. Buying a small diesel city car does not make sense, diesels are not efficient in cities and they pollute too much (NOx, particulates - small cars don't have part. filters). As for diesels being cheaper to maintain, that was true up til 20 years ago but is no longer the case with the new diesel engines. They're still more expensive to buy though. In fact the only reason why they are so popular is that diesel is less taxed than gas in many countries, so that 1 litre of diesel is 25% cheaper than 1 litre of gas. Add to that the fact that diesels consume less, people are just trying to spend less on gas. As soon as diesel becomes at least as expensive as gas (it should be more expensive as it contains more CO2), I hope we'll see a rise in hybrids or electric cars in cities to replace all these small diesel cars!
And why is that? The diesels that are being sold in California have both particulate filters and NOX emission control technology. IMO, a diesel-electric hybrid would be the best implementation of the hybrid model - you would get the best of both worlds.
The data also suggests market saturation. The trend line of the previous four years shows a leveling off was approaching. Something similar to the 1994-97 years. Any thoughts about 1994-97? Bob Wilson
It's a little more complicated than that I think. I can only talk for the UK but diesel used to be slightly cheaper than petrol which offset the extra cost to purchase the diesel car. Diesel now costs more than petrol, the cars cost more to buy and unless you do the mileage, the sums just don't add up. Also, the latest diesel cars have particle filters which is great for local air quality, but these traps have a habit of blocking up in town/city driving (search goodle uk for this). Diesel cars were once the car of choice for fellow taxi drivers here in the UK and Europe because of their economy and reliability. Unfortunately the latest generation of diesels are so complex and expensive to fix that petrol cars are now being considered again. Particle filters are jamming up in 20,000 miles at a replacement cost of £700 ($1000), high pressure (15,000psi) diesel pumps cost about the same and fail about 80,000 miles in my experience. Big bills to someone like me on top of fuel, insurance etc. Those are the reasons I purchased my Prius. Obviously time will tell.
