According to an industry expert, the market share for diesels in Britain could collapse to just 15% as motorists continue to choose other means of propulsion.
Aston University’s Professor David Bailey says that diesel cars are caught in a “perfect storm”, while adding that demand has already fallen to 17.1% in 2017, as reported by The Telegraph.
In fact, the drop even accelerated towards the end of the year, as motorists continue to be confused by government policies towards diesels – with sales dropping by 31.1% in the month of December alone.
“Diesel cars face a raft of challenges, each one of which could damage sales, and which are combining to kill off the domestic diesel sector, which was so rattled by the ‘dieselgate’ scandal,” said Bailey.
“They face a perfect storm of bad PR over pollution, coupled with concerns over increasingly strict regulations and sinking second-hand values.”
He also predicts that sales for new diesel-powered vehicles will drop by another 10% this year, and will represent just 15% of the new car market by the year 2025, compared to 47.7% in 2016 and 42% in 2017.
Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s biggest car maker stated that its UK sales were flat in 2017, expressing frustration over the government’s treatment of diesels.
“We’re investing and exporting 80% of our output and delivering a huge amount of benefit to this economy,” said JLR sales exec, Andy Goss. “One would expect hand-in glove approach when it comes to looking at an area of policy so we don’t get surprises. It’s a reasonable request when, as a car manufacturer, planning takes a long time and takes huge amounts of money.”
Meanwhile Professor Bailey points out that governments had several other opportunities to encourage drivers to switch to alternative means of propulsion, even back in 2001 when “there was a misconceived drive to get people to opt for diesels.”
“Now that it’s clear diesel is dying a slow death, the time is right for the government to take the initiative and offer up scrappage benefits to those who are prepared to ditch their diesels and switch to electric cars.”
