More than 500,000 old diesel cars exchanged

Bad Homburg. The diesel changeover premiums that car manufacturers have been offering since summer 2017 are effective. As a result of these measures, more than 500,000 diesel cars complying with Euro5 emission standards and worse have disappeared from the fleet in 2017 and 2018. VDIK President Reinhard Zirpel stressed: “The renewal of the existing fleet is working. The manufacturers are making their contribution to improving air quality. And the end of the line is far from being reached: the exchange campaigns are continuing. In addition, large numbers of new Euro6d-Temp diesel cars with extremely low NOx emissions are about to improve the situation even further.”

The Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers has evaluated data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority for the calculation.

Between and , 724,000 Euro5 and worse diesel cars were removed. This figure can be interpreted as “natural shrinkage”. Without measures to promote the renewal, a decline in Euro5 diesel cars and worse by around million would have been expected for the period from to . In fact, however, the number of diesel cars fell by million and thus by around 510,000 units more than expected. This effect is attributable to the changeover premiums. VDIK member companies account for 38 percent of the older diesel cars removed from the fleet.

The number of diesel cars in circulation has changed not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of quality: From 2017, the number of petrol cars and alternative drive systems grew more strongly than diesel. In 2018, the number of diesel passenger cars even fell slightly. This led to a shift towards cars with significantly lower NOx emissions. Since 2018, low NOx diesel cars of the Euro6d-Temp standard have also been registered – with a strong upward trend. The number of these particularly clean vehicles is expected to have reached around 600,000 by mid-2019.