February’s diesel share of new car sales in the region was revised down marginally (to 15.3%) while March’s provisional result indicates a penetration rate of 15.1%.

All markets have lost diesel share over the last year, but in around half of the cases this was one percentage point or less, indicating a slow ramp-down for the diesel market. Belgium and Portugal appear to have seen the largest decline in share terms, both falling by around six points versus March 2023. Germany, by contrast, has seen diesel penetration fall by just 0.1 percentage point over the last year, maintaining the strong attachment to diesel in that market for drivers of larger premium vehicles. France and Italy lost between four and five percentage points of diesel over the last year and have seen rapid declines, exacerbated by those markets being dominated by smaller segment vehicles, in which the economic case for diesel is now weak and where many diesel powertrains have been deleted in recent years.