Currently reading: Slump in diesel demand continues to hit UK new car market
New car market shrank by nearly 16% in March, as concerns over diesel engines hurt demand

The slump in demand for diesel-engined cars has continued to hit the UK new car market, which declined by 15.7% year on year in March.

Preliminary figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that demand for diesel cars was down by just over 37%. By comparison, sales of alternative fuelled vehicles – including electric cars – was up by more than 5%, and demand for petrol cars increased by just under 1%.

The decline of 15.7%, which is substantially higher than the 2.8% year-on-year drop in February, is partly because March 2017 was a record month for UK new car sales, ahead of April's change in Vehicle Excise Duty.

Top 10 best-selling cars in Britain 2018

The March figures mean that the new car market declined by around 12% in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017. SMMT boss Mike Hawes said that while March's results aren't a surprise given the unusual surge in registrations seen in March 2017, the continued decline highlighted a dent in consumer and business confidence.

"A thriving new car market is essential to the overall health of our economy," he said. "This means creating the right economic conditions for all types of consumers to have the confidence to buy new vehicles. All technologies, regardless of fuel type, have a role to play in helping improve air quality whilst meeting our climate change targets, so government must do more to encourage consumers to buy new vehicles rather than hang onto their older, more polluting vehicles.”

The UK Government's new diesel tax hike was introduced this month and requires new models that drink from the black pump to conform to the Euro 6d emissions standard, which isn't due to come into force until 2020. No new models currently meet that requirement, meaning every new diesel car has been hit with the rise.

Diesel now represents 33.5% of the new car market, a decrease of 10.5% compared with this period in 2017. Meanwhile, petrol now accounts for 61.4% of new car sales, up from 52% last year, contributing to a rise in average CO2 emissions for new cars in Britain that first started in February.

Things are more familiar in the bestselling car model list, with longstanding chart-topper, the Ford Fiesta, receiving 19,272 (32,808 in the year-to-date) registrations to the second placed Volkswagen Golf's 13,966 (21,203 year-to-date). The Nissan Qashqai holds onto third with 12,018 registrations (16,914 year-to-date), but the Vauxhall Corsa overtakes the Ford Focus for fourth with 11,718 sales to the Focus's 9403.

Additional reporting by Sam Sheehan

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February 2018: UK new car market shrinks by 2.8%

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James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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van_diesel 6 April 2018

diesel cars

oil breaks down 2 parts petrol, 1part diesel.  so where will they use the diesel.  its just a con to get tax and use the diesel elsewhere.  If diesel is bad new car sales should be banned. simple and harmless.  instead punish the people who nlegally bought what they thought best.

 

xxxx 6 April 2018

use

Trucks, vans, big cars doing high milage, big SUV's, tractors. These are uses Diesel engines should be used for not Fiesta's doing 9,000 miles a year in town 

van_diesel 6 April 2018

diesel cars

oil breaks down 2 parts petrol, 1part diesel.  so where will they use the diesel.  its just a con to get tax and use the diesel elsewhere.  If diesel is bad new car sales should be banned. simple and harmless.  instead punish the people who nlegally bought what they thought best.

 

scotty5 5 April 2018

Diesel ain't dead.

I'm going to order a convertible next time around - with all these dirty modern petrol cars producing higher Co2 levels, global warming is on the increase.

I'm considering buying shares in Amber Solaire and planting a few pineapple trees in my Scottish garden.