August’s diesel car sales result in the region was fairly well in line with the 2-3 percentage point decline year-on-year seen in most months of this year. Both August and year-to-date diesel shares were 11.7% with just Greece data unavailable at the time of writing and hence little, if any, retrospective adjustment to be expected.
The German market has seen diesel sales fall by circa 80k units so far this year, accounting for about one third of the total loss seen (232k units). Nevertheless, it continues to account for 40% of diesel demand in the region, though diesel share there now appears to be dropping below the 20% threshold, showing that even Germany isn’t immune to the ongoing shift away from diesel seen across the region.
The battery electric vehicle market in the region continues to grow at the pace set early in the year (about 30% to 35% year-on-year) with all major countries apart from France seeing significant momentum in this area after a poor result in 2024. That expansion is of course at the expense of the combustion segment though hybrids of all types are also performing well. The diesel segment is largely unhybridised and is therefore vulnerable to the trend towards battery electric and hybrid vehicles.
This article was first published on GlobalData’s dedicated research platform, the Automotive Intelligence Center.
