Diesel car sales up 49% across Europe

Sales of diesel cars have surged and now account for 21 per cent of all new car purchases in Ireland, according to new figures released this week.

The figures also show that sales of SUVs, estates and hatchback cars have risen dramatically in the Republic, by significantly more than European averages.

Between October 2004 and September 2005 a total of 36,917 diesel cars left Irish forecourts, an increase of 30 per cent on the previous 12 months. According to the survey carried out by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC) and eurocarprice.com, diesel sales now account for 49 per cent of sales in Europe and are set to outstrip their petrol counterparts in 2006.

Ireland is fifth from the bottom and has some way to go to catch up with some of its European neighbours, where diesels sales have long surpassed petrols due to large fuel price differentials.

The survey of 19 European countries reports that Belgium had the highest proportion of diesel sales in the 12 months to September 2005, accounting for 72 per cent of the total. Diesel in Belgium is 19 per cent cheaper than petrol.

In France, where diesel is 12 per cent cheaper, 70 per cent of new cars bought were diesels, an increase of 6 per cent. In Austria, Spain, Portugal and Italy diesels are also more popular than petrol models. Greece sells the smallest number of diesel cars, only 1 per cent of the total - a drop of 56 per cent, while Sweden, Hungary, and Finland all sell less than 20 per cent of total on diesels.

Average European prices for diesel cars continued to rise more quickly (+3.5 per cent) than petrol cars (+3.2 per cent) in the 12 months to January 1st last. In Ireland the price of diesel cars rose by 2.6 per cent in the same period while petrol car prices dropped slightly by 0.1 per cent.

The most expensive car market, according to the survey, was Denmark, where new car prices are 91 per cent higher than the eurozone average. Prices in Ireland are 30 per cent higher, while prices in the UK are 2 per cent higher. Prices in Switzerland were lowest, at 8 per cent less than the average.

The highest price rise was seen in Italy, where they rose by 5.6 per cent in the 12 months to January 1st last, while sales were down by 2.1 per cent in the 12 months to September last. In Poland, the only market where prices are dropping (down 1.1 per cent) sales plummetted by 30.5 per cent.

Sales of SUVs in Ireland rose by 44.7 per cent in the 12 months to September 2005, compared to a 23.4 per cent average rise across the 19 countries surveyed.

In the same period, hatchback sales rose by 12.5 per cent in the Republic, while sales of estate cars increased by 11.4 per cent. Sales of sedan cars rose in Ireland by 6.6 per cent.

The figures are at odds with the European averages where sales of hatchbacks, estates, and saloons all dropped. An 8.9 per cent rise in sales of MPVs across Europe was not borne out in Ireland, where sales of these models fell slightly by 0.6 per cent.