UK Records Lowest Number of Diesel Vehicles on Roads

According to the Department of Transport (DfT) the number of diesel vehicles in Britain has fallen for the first time in 25 years.Since 2017 the number of diesel vehicles has been decreasing however this has been by very small numbers year on year until now. The latest numbers of all licensed and registered cars released by the Department of Transport (DfT) shows 111,000 fewer diesel vehicles on the roads in 2019 compared to the 2018 figures.

In 2017 diesel vehicles held a 39.6% share of vehicles on the road, in 1994 when the DfT records began there were just 1.58 million diesel vehicles licensed on the road, this number steadily increased until 2018 when there were 12.29 million diesel vehicles licensed on UK roads.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) 583,488 new diesel cars were sold in 2019, down 21.8% on the 746,332 sold in 2018, however the number of diesel vans sold in 2019 were up by 110,000 on 2018 sales.