Ricardo sees diesel surge accelerating in Europe - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Automotive engineering consultancy Ricardo finds that outstanding performance advances in diesel technology in recent years explain a huge and growing surge in European vehicle dieselization.

European diesel car sales last year topped 5.33 million units, an all-time record. That was up 12% over the previous record in 2002.

"At this rate, Ricardo estimates that [European] diesel car sales will reach a market penetration in excess of 40% in 2002 and 50% potentially by 2005," the company found.

It's not just the superior fuel economy of diesels that's driving the massive trend, according Ricardo's "Diesel Passenger Car & Light Commercial Vehicle Markets in Western Europe" report.

Rather, it's common rail, variable-geometry turbo and other engineering breakthroughs helping motorists to choose high-performance diesel over gasoline, the company finds.

rance and Germany continue to set the diesel pace, although the UK saw a 39% jump in diesel sales last year, reversing six years of gasoline growth.

"Business car drivers trying to reduce [CO.sub.2] levels in the run-up to the new [UK] emissions-based company car tax, starting April 2002, helped fuel last year's rapid rise of diesel sales" in the UK, Ricardo found. Another factor was a new [CO.sub.2]-based road tax on vehicles registered since March 1, 2001.

In Italy, the removal of punitive anti-diesel tax measures since 1995 explains why diesels now capture 37% of new-car sales there. Spain meanwhile continues to score on diesels, representing over half of new-car sales.

France saw a whopping 21% increase in diesel car sales last year, with a resulting 56% sales share. German diesels also rose by 12.6%, to 35% of car sales.

Belgium and Luxembourg diesel sales rates are now over 62%, and Austria continues as Europe's leader with a 65.7% diesel sales share, thanks to a fuel tax rate tied to fuel economy/[CO.sub.2] policies.

Because of this huge demand surge, "it is expected that within five years manufacturers will be able to offer customers the same number of diesel [model] options as gasoline variants for each vehicle, further enhancing the' desirability of the diesel car," Ricardo's study found.