Diesel market share decline in Western Europe

Diesel share of new car sales in Western Europe experienced a slight decline in August due to the strong performance of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in Germany. The removal of subsidies for company BEVs from September 1, 2023, led to a surge in BEV registrations in August, resulting in a decrease in sales of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars, including diesel. If it weren't for this, Germany's diesel car share in August would have been expected to be stronger.

The provisional August diesel share for the region, including hybrids, was recorded at 15.0%, with a few smaller markets yet to report. The year-to-date diesel share for 2023 stands at 16.5%, showing a slight decrease of 0.2pp compared to the July number. In August, 120k diesel cars were sold, bringing the total sales for the first eight months of the year to 1.265 million units, which is virtually unchanged from the same period in 2022.

Despite the distorted August figures in Germany, both Germany and Italy have seen larger diesel markets in 2023 compared to 2022. The only significant decrease was observed in France, where diesel sales are down by almost 50k units year-to-date. However, this decline is offset by a similar-sized increase in Germany and an almost 40k increase in Italy. The recovery from a weak base in 2022 is a contributing factor, but the overall trend in diesel share remains negative.