We thought we had hit a low point. What nenni! The diesel plummet has accelerated further in 2018. While in 2017, sales of diesel vehicles were fallen below the highly symbolic threshold of 50% for the first time since 2000, they reached a new level: last year, some 39% of new cars registered in France were equipped with diesel engines, according to the figures of the Committee of French automobile manufacturers ( CCFA), a decrease of 15% compared to 2017. In 2011, the proportion exceeded 70%.
Worn to the skies
After having been praised by the public authorities and favored by taxation, diesel is today adorned with all the ills. For several years, studies have pointed out the health risks it poses, due to emissions of fine particles such as nitrous oxide (NOx). The dieselgate, in which the Volkswagen group has confessed to cheating to minimize actual NOx emissions, has finished diverting buyers.
Not so much for the sake of the environment, but rather for fear of no longer being able to circulate or to see the resale value of their vehicle collapse. Because more and more local elected officials are announcing upcoming restrictions, in order to improve the quality of the air in the cities. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has already announced that diesel would simply be banned from 2024 in the capital. Older vehicles (registered before 2001) will be banned from July 2019 throughout Greater Paris (within the A86).
Time of resale
For now, the price of used diesel vehicles has not really moved. According to Vincent Hancart, CEO of the digital platform AutoScout24 France, it is maintained overall, but the resale times are lengthening. With a flat, however, for small city, the least suitable for diesel engines. Guillaume Paoli, co-founder of the website AramisAuto, found mid-November a drop of 10% to 15% in resale prices in this category.
The disenchantment with diesel is even starting to affect businesses, which are more rational in their economic choices: diesel fuel remains financially advantageous for heavy rollers. According to the Observatoire du Véhicule d’Entreprise (OVE), its share fell below 80% in the first eleven months of 2018 (to 78.8%), compared to 85% in 2017 and 94% in 2012.
Survival in play
For the automotive industry, the brutality of the fall is a real headache. Not only does he have to adapt his industrial tool, but it will become more and more difficult to reach the CO2 targets set by the European Union, the diesel emitting less
of CO2 than gasoline. “The industry plays its survival,” commented a few days ago Luc Chatel, President of the Platform Automobile (PFA). According to a prospective study conducted by the Observatory of Metallurgy, the sector employs 35,000 people in France, half of which is very exposed to the fall of diesel.