Europe's diesel collapse — what 2020-2024 registrations show

Background

Across the four large markets covered here — DE, ES, FR, and IT — the registration mix points to a clear retreat for diesel between 2020 and 2024. The headline figure in the findings puts diesel at 16.9 in 2024, with a change of -16.9 percentage points across the period covered by the summary fields. Over the same span, electric reached 11.2, a gain of 11.2 percentage points, while average CO2 fell from 131.4 g/km to 111.9 g/km, a drop of 19.5 g/km.

The country-level data show that the sharpest readable shifts are concentrated in 2022 through 2024, because the fuel-share entries for 2020 and 2021 are listed as 0.0 across powertrains. Even with that limitation, the direction is unambiguous in the later years: diesel loses ground in every market in the set, while petrol remains the largest single powertrain and electric expands unevenly.

This matters because the question readers often ask — why diesel cars are disappearing — can be answered, at least in part, from the registration mix itself. In these four markets, diesel is no longer the default new-car choice. By 2024, diesel stood at 21.4 in DE, 16.3 in ES, 8.6 in FR, and 19.1 in IT. In every case, petrol was far higher.

What the registrations show

The most direct way to read the diesel collapse is to compare the 2022, 2023, and 2024 registration shares side by side.

Country	2022 diesel %	2023 diesel %	2024 diesel %	2024 electric %	2024 petrol %
DE	21.5	22.5	21.4	13.9	57.1
ES	23.4	18.1	16.3	5.4	69.6
FR	18.4	11.6	8.6	16.5	62.0
IT	24.0	22.4	19.1	4.2	63.9

FR stands out most clearly. Diesel fell from 18.4 in 2022 to 11.6 in 2023 and then to 8.6 in 2024. At the same time, electric rose from 12.8 in 2022 to 16.4 in 2023 and 16.5 in 2024. That is the cleanest example in the dataset of diesel being displaced by another low-emission powertrain in the new-car market.

ES and IT show a different pattern. Diesel declines in both countries, but the replacement is led more by petrol than by electric. In ES, petrol moved from 65.5 in 2022 to 67.2 in 2023 and 69.6 in 2024, while electric was 3.7, 5.6, and 5.4. In IT, petrol rose from 57.5 to 60.7 to 63.9, while electric stayed at 3.7, 4.2, and 4.2.

DE is the least linear case. Diesel was 21.5 in 2022, 22.5 in 2023, and 21.4 in 2024. That is not a collapse in a straight line, but it still leaves diesel well behind petrol at 57.1 in 2024, and below the combined non-diesel alternatives.

Country patterns and the shape of the decline

The four markets are moving in the same broad direction, but not at the same speed.

FR appears furthest along in diesel’s retreat. By 2024, diesel at 8.6 was roughly half the level seen in 2022 at 18.4. Electric at 16.5 was nearly double diesel’s share in 2024. Among the four countries, FR also posted the lowest average CO2 in 2024 at 94.1 g/km.

ES shows a steady diesel slide without a matching electric surge. Diesel fell from 23.4 in 2022 to 16.3 in 2024. Yet electric only moved from 3.7 to 5.4 over the same period. The larger beneficiary in the registration mix was petrol, which reached 69.6 in 2024. LPG also rose from 1.7 in 2022 to 3.2 in 2024.

IT remains comparatively diesel-heavy in 2024 at 19.1, despite the decline from 24.0 in 2022. It also has the strongest LPG presence in the group: 8.9 in 2022, 8.2 in 2023, and 9.4 in 2024. Electric remains low at 4.2 in both 2023 and 2024, suggesting that diesel’s losses there are being redistributed across petrol and LPG more than battery-electric.

DE sits between the French and southern patterns. Diesel stayed near the low-20s in 2022 through 2024, but electric reached 18.3 in 2022 and 19.0 in 2023 before easing to 13.9 in 2024. Petrol, meanwhile, climbed from 45.5 in 2022 to 57.1 in 2024.

Why diesel cars are disappearing in this dataset

The findings do not include fuel prices, refinery flows, Russia export policy, or daily diesel rates, so they cannot answer questions such as why have diesel prices gone up, diesel price Europe today, or diesel rate December 2024. They do, however, show why diesel cars are disappearing from new registrations in a narrower market-share sense: other powertrains are taking a larger portion of the market.

In FR, diesel’s fall coincides with a strong electric presence and a lower average CO2 profile. In 2024, FR recorded 16.5 electric against 8.6 diesel, with average CO2 at 94.1 g/km. In DE, electric remained substantial at 13.9 in 2024, even after being 19.0 in 2023, while petrol expanded to 57.1. In ES and IT, diesel’s decline is paired more with petrol resilience and, in IT especially, with LPG staying relevant at 9.4 in 2024.

So the disappearance is not explained by one single substitute across Europe. In this four-country view, diesel is being squeezed by different combinations of petrol, electric, hybrid, and LPG. The common thread is that diesel is no longer the growth side of the market in any of the four countries by 2024.

That also helps with another reader question: why does Europe use diesel. This dataset cannot explain the historical reasons. It can only show that, in current registrations, diesel still retains a notable role in some markets — 21.4 in DE and 19.1 in IT in 2024 — but a much smaller one in FR at 8.6.

Electric growth, petrol resilience, and the CO2 trend

The summary figures pair diesel’s decline with electric growth and lower average CO2. Across the findings, electric reached 11.2 by 2024, while average CO2 fell by 19.5 g/km from 131.4 to 111.9. At country level, the relationship is visible but uneven.

Country	2020 CO2 g/km	2022 CO2 g/km	2023 CO2 g/km	2024 CO2 g/km
DE	136.1	106.0	113.0	117.1
ES	135.4	121.6	117.4	117.7
FR	121.0	102.9	96.7	94.1
IT	132.4	119.1	120.0	119.8

FR again is the clearest case. As diesel fell from 18.4 in 2022 to 8.6 in 2024, electric rose from 12.8 to 16.5, and average CO2 moved from 102.9 to 94.1 g/km. That is a consistent downward emissions path.

ES also improved on CO2, from 121.6 in 2022 to 117.7 in 2024, while diesel fell from 23.4 to 16.3. But because electric remained at 5.4 in 2024, the emissions improvement there appears alongside a market still dominated by petrol at 69.6.

DE and IT are more mixed. DE reached a low of 106.0 g/km in 2022, then rose to 113.0 in 2023 and 117.1 in 2024. IT moved from 119.1 in 2022 to 120.0 in 2023 and 119.8 in 2024. In both markets, diesel’s decline did not translate into a simple year-by-year CO2 reduction.

Market size and where the shift is happening

The registration totals show where these fuel-mix changes are occurring at scale.

Country	2022 registrations	2023 registrations	2024 registrations
DE	2,559,638	2,749,057	2,712,259
ES	837,393	966,712	1,047,377
FR	1,635,620	1,886,295	1,817,361
IT	1,308,812	1,560,177	1,550,879

DE is the largest market in the set in every year shown, with 2,712,259 registrations in 2024. That means even a diesel share of 21.4 represents a large remaining diesel presence in absolute market terms, though the report cannot convert shares into unit counts without introducing calculations.

FR, with 1,817,361 registrations in 2024, combines a large market with the lowest diesel share at 8.6. ES and IT are smaller than DE but still substantial, and both remain more diesel-exposed than FR in 2024.

This matters because the phrase “Europe’s diesel collapse” can imply a uniform outcome. The data here suggest something more specific: a broad regional decline in diesel’s share of new registrations, but with very different endpoints. FR looks close to a post-diesel new-car market. DE and IT do not. ES sits between them, with diesel still at 16.3 in 2024.

What the data can and cannot say about a diesel rebound

Several reader questions ask why diesel is going up, or why diesel is going up again. The findings support only a limited answer.

In DE, diesel did rise from 21.5 in 2022 to 22.5 in 2023 before slipping to 21.4 in 2024. That is a short-lived increase within the period shown. In the other three countries, diesel moved downward from 2022 to 2023 and again from 2023 to 2024: ES from 23.4 to 18.1 to 16.3, FR from 18.4 to 11.6 to 8.6, and IT from 24.0 to 22.4 to 19.1.

So there is no broad four-country rebound in the registration data. There is one temporary uptick in DE, but by 2024 diesel there was below its 2023 level. The larger pattern remains decline.

The same caution applies to questions about diesel restrictions in Europe. The dataset does not include policy measures, city bans, taxation, or emissions-zone rules. It can only show the market outcome: by 2024, diesel’s share of new registrations was lower than in 2022 in all four countries.

Limitations

The findings are strong on registration mix and average CO2, but narrow in scope. They cover only DE, ES, FR, and IT. They do not cover all of Europe, and they do not include fuel prices, operating costs, taxes, refinery supply, sanctions, or trade flows.

There is also a structural limitation in the fuel-share series. For 2020 and 2021, diesel, petrol, electric, hybrid, and LPG are all listed as 0.0 in every country. That means the detailed powertrain trend is really readable from 2022 through 2024, even though the summary fields span 2020 to 2024.

The report also cannot discuss model-level diesel decline because top_diesel_decline_models is empty. And while the summary states diesel_pct_drop_pp at -16.9 and electric_pct_gain_pp at 11.2, the country tables do not provide a complete 2020 and 2021 fuel-share baseline to unpack those summary changes in the same way at national level.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Why are diesel cars disappearing? A: In these findings, diesel is losing share in all four markets by 2024: 21.4 in DE, 16.3 in ES, 8.6 in FR, and 19.1 in IT. Petrol is higher in every country, and electric reaches 16.5 in FR and 13.9 in DE in 2024.

Q: Is diesel going up again in Europe? A: Not across these four markets. DE rose from 21.5 in 2022 to 22.5 in 2023, then fell to 21.4 in 2024, while ES, FR, and IT all declined from 2022 to 2024.

Q: Which country still has the most diesel in new registrations? A: In 2024, DE had 21.4 diesel, IT had 19.1, ES had 16.3, and FR had 8.6. Among those four, DE was highest in 2024.

Q: Which country has moved furthest away from diesel? A: FR appears furthest along in this dataset. Its diesel share fell from 18.4 in 2022 to 8.6 in 2024, while electric reached 16.5 in 2024.

Q: Did lower diesel share coincide with lower CO2? A: In the summary, average CO2 fell from 131.4 g/km to 111.9 g/km between 2020 and 2024. FR shows the clearest country pattern, moving from 102.9 g/km in 2022 to 94.1 g/km in 2024 as diesel fell from 18.4 to 8.6.

Q: Does this dataset show diesel prices in Europe today? A: No. The findings include registration shares, registration totals, and average CO2 for 2020 through 2024, but no diesel price or daily rate data.