The news last week from Irish Shell that greener and cleaner low sulphur diesel is now on sale at the pumps, highlights the growth of the diesel market, writes Andrew Hamilton.
Once diesel was a fuel only used by a handful of motorists, mostly farmers. Today it's widely acceptable. A car manufacturer without a diesel version is lost because in countries like France, Italy and Austria diesel is the preferred option.
We recall years ago giving a friend a drive in a shining new coupé that we had on test. He was suitably impressed and then popped the question: "Do they do her in diesel?" We all fell around laughing, it seemed so ludicrous. Today smart coupés and cabriolets are marketed in diesel form: it's very normal.
Diesel sales in Ireland are still small by European standards, accounting for less than 15 per cent of all new cars sold. In Britain the expectation is that roughly one-third of the new market will be diesel, at the end of next year. In France diesel represents over half of all cars sold, while Austria has the highest diesel penetration in all of Europe, 67 per cent.
The growth of diesel in Ireland is in the more expensive segments of the market. Given the much greater economy that is offered, there's obvious appeal to high mileage fleet customers. People buying cars with their own money who usually favour superminis and small family cars, such as the Ford Focus, shy away from diesel models. For a start diesel, carries a premium and they would not be incurring high mileage to justify the extra outlay.
Most significant is the popularity of diesel in the luxury and executive sectors. Twenty years ago, a diesel-powered BMW would, like the diesel coupé, have sounded preposterous. Today diesel Beemers are very much the norm - and, thanks to turbocharging, the performance differential compared with petrol-engined models is a small one. Diesel can make a car like the BMW 320D very long-legged with the ability of doing 700 or more miles on a tank.
The growth of diesel is probably the biggest development in motoring in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Diesel has a sparkling new image and it's greener and cleaner. In the old days, if you were a diesel motorist you had to go to a bleak out-of-the-way spot of the forecourt. Today the diesel pump has proper status beside its petrol confreres. Diesel has truly come in from the cold!