As speculated in the comments section of our article on Stuttgart’s decision to begin selectively banning diesel cars from the city during times of high air pollution, diesel car sales in the region appear to have fallen notably. Presumably, public discussion on the possibility of future bans has put a damper on diesel cars.
Overall, car sales in Germany actually “fell” in February (for the first time since October 2016) by 2.6%, but on top of this, the share of sales held by diesel models actually fell by 3.8%, according to KBA. I put “fell” in quotes because it was a very short month, and sales would have actually been up around 2% if the month was a “regular” one.
Despite the slight drop, the diesel model share of the total German auto market still totals 43.4%, though, it should be noted. (A total of 243,602 new vehicles were sold in Germany in February.)
It’ll be interesting to see how much this figure falls in coming months, especially as Munich will also apparently be imposing some restrictions on diesel car use in the city as well.
“February dealt a blow to the German new car market,” commented Peter Fuss, a senior partner and automotive specialist in Ernst & Young’s German practice. Fuss also noted that rising energy costs and inflation were part of the reason for the drop as compared to January’s strong growth.
Welcome to the club — that’s the state that most of the rest of the “European Union” has been in for quite some time. (I wonder why…)
World-record EV gathering in Stuttgart.
“Buyers are shunning diesel car purchases as Germany discusses driving bans and because of increases in car selling prices expected on the back of manufacturers’ efforts to improve emissions-control technology, Fuss said,” according to Reuters.
“Stuttgart, home to premium carmakers Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, has said it will next year ban diesel cars which do not comply with latest emissions limits from the city on days when pollution is heavy.” You can read more on Stuttgart’s planned ban here.
There’s also the possible influence of the Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal — though, this doesn’t seem to have influenced German auto buyers much to date.
Image: EV world record gathering in Stuttgart
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Electrifying Industrial Heat for Steel, Cement, & More
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
