Diesels set market share record in UK
The United States has, up until this point, proven to be a tough market for diesel vehicles. Compared to the European market, which is widely diesel-centric, the only compression ignition vehicles that have historically sold well here are the largest of pickups. This may soon change with automakers beginning to roll out more quality choices which use diesel fuel... or may not due to the fact that diesel prices are rising even faster than gasoline prices. Regardless, it doesn't seem as if the U.S. will be passing Europe when it comes to diesel-powered vehicles, as April has set a new record for diesel penetration in the UK with 45.4 percent of all new registrations being oil-runners. The best seller of all remains the Ford Focus in both gas and diesel versions. For what it's worth, the year-to-date percentage of diesel vehicles sold in the UK stands at 42.7 percent. In related news, the mini car market also enjoyed a healthy bump in sales, up 43.7 percent. Forecasts indicate that diesel vehicles and small, fuel-efficient models will continue to gain market share as the price of fuel increases. As you can see here, SMMT has been covering this increase in sales for quite some time. The entire report of April sales in the UK is available here.
[Source: SMMT]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phil L. 8:53AM (5/13/2008)
I've been telling my friends to just wait: They'll see diesel take off soon in the US.
Now I'm not so sure. Diesel prices in my area are at least 25% higher than gas - closing in on the boost in fuel economy you'd expect by switching to a diesel vehicle. If the vehicles cost the same, I'd still be interested in diesel.
But they don't, so most car buyers won't put out the extra up-front investment.
Perhaps diesel prices will come back in line with gasoline. Maybe the US will finally get a broad selection of popular, affordable diesel vehicles. But diesel isn't looking as inevitable as it did just a couple of years ago.
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Woodenbee 12:37PM (5/13/2008)
The United States has, up until this point, proven to be a tough market for diesel vehicles, Er What? the only tough part is getting automakers to sell them? so far only Mercedes and VW have bothered to ignore all the gas lobby pressure to only sell gas cars, if you haven't noticed the lockstep death march of gas only vehicles allowed for the American public then your not paying any attention. Then one day big farm/corn lobby got with GM and decided to allow you guys to have ethanol/flexfuel in your suburban!, wow isn't that progress! Yes Phil L. your right isn't it interesting how in just a couple of years as alternative fuels have become more widely known Diesel has inexplicably become less viable because of price hikes, new strangely high emissions standards, taxes, and the complete absence of small diesel vehicles on the US market , its such an amazing coincidence... it's obviously an orchestrated effort to keep Americans using gas vehicles, my advice convert to bio-diesel if you can, and put these crooks out of business, Gas price reparations now!!! take away their "windfall" profits, monopolies=treason
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Andras Soltesz 2:04PM (5/13/2008)
Diesel fuel is quickly becoming more and more expensive here in Europe. It will soon negate the economical advantage of the diesel engine over the gas engine (fuel economy).
I don't mind this because diesel cars are extremely polluting since particulate filters are not mandatory (so noone buys them with their cars) and this has SEVERE effect on the air quality of EU cities (central EU especially).
In its current state, diesel is a plague, and not something I would welcome. I hope EU leaders start working for their money an put tough controls into effect for curbing diesel emissions.
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Karkus 2:10PM (5/13/2008)
Conspiracy theories aside.... the gas / diesel ratio is determined mostly by TAXES, and influenced a little by the emissions standards.
In the US, taxes are very low, with the gas taxes being a few cents lower than on diesel. Those few cents really don't make much different at $3-4/gallon. The main point is that gas and diesel are both cheap, and there isn't much incentive to go to diesel. Plus, the emissions requirement don't help diesel either.
Trend: higher prices = more incentive for diesel.
In Europe, high taxes mean that gas/diesel costs about twice as much as in the US (incentive for diesel), and the taxes on diesel are significantly lower than on gasoline (incentive for diesel).
Trend: new focus on CO2 instead of MPG will favor gasoline in the future (since CO2 correct for the higher energy content of diesel). Also, HCCI engines will give gas engines similar advantages as diesel.
Having said all that.... there are strong status quo forces in effect here, which will preclude too much change. The market and the refineries. The refineries are set up to produce a certain amount of gas vs. diesel, and changing that ratio is only possible to a certain degree, and it takes time/money. Also, the market dictate is no way for the whole world can go in either direction too far. If everyone switches to diesel, gas will become cheaper, and people will switch back. Or vice versa.
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Tim 2:41PM (5/13/2008)
Grease bandits strike as biofuel demand rises
As the price of this waste product and biodiesel ingredient has risen, so have thefts.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the May 6, 2008 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0506/p01s03-usgn.html
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TheRookie 3:58PM (5/13/2008)
Actually, diesel fuel in the UK is more expensive than petrol. Currently, average pricing is for petrol is 2.19 USD/litre and diesel is 2.39 USD/litre (source: petrolprices.com).
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