Automotive industry favours diesel, says garage network CEO

'Diesel is the lesser of the two fuel evils,' Servicing Stop's Oly Richmond reports

Automotive industry favours diesel, says garage network CEO
Oly Richmond, CEO and founder of Servicing Stop.

“The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has warned against moves to limit the use of diesel vehicles through colossal levies and has claimed diesel technology has become much more efficient and clean,” says Oly Richmond, CEO and founder of garage network Servicing Stop.

“There are numbers to prove it too.

“In fact, diesel technology has almost entirely eliminated emissions of particulate matter with 99 per cent of soot particulates captured by special filters – all diesel cars made after 2011 have this tech and around half of all diesel vehicles on the roads contain the filter.

“In less scientific terms, diesel cars emit on average 20 per cent less CO2 than petrol cars and have saved 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere since 2002.”

The revelation follows a government report published this time last year, Richmond continues, “Which claimed diesel cars emit an average of six times more nitrogen oxide in on-road driving than the legal limit used in official tests.

“The government have launched a series of schemes since that encourage drivers to give up diesel and opt for something cleaner.

“As most scrappage schemes do, this has resulted in another hefty expense for car owners.

“Sadiq Khan announced the latest charge on diesel cars driving into the city in the new ultra low emission zone.

“Diesel cars older than four years in 2019 will pay £12.50 alongside petrol vehicles which are more than 13 years old.

“This is on top of the congestion charge making driving diesel far more costly and much less affordable in the ongoing attempt to cut air pollution…it would be millions of motorists that are affected by this change.”

 

CAR-Mar_ME-table

Source: SMMT, via Servicing Stop.

 

The SMMT recorded that 1.3 million new diesel cars were registered last year, Richmond says, which is an increase of 0.6 per cent from the year before.

“It seems the trend is continuing into 2017 with more business and consumer diesel cars being registered in March than in any other month in history.

“Based on our own customer base in Servicing Stop between March 2016 and February 2017, 46 per cent of drivers own a diesel car and 54 per cent own a petrol car.

“This means almost one in every two of our customers owns a diesel car – are we going to make life a lot more difficult for half of all drivers?

“I think not.

“More than 99 per cent of the UK’s 4.4 million commercial vehicles are diesel but let’s put that in perspective: taxis, trucks carrying essential goods and emergency services.

“Without these vehicles, we would not have one of our most popular modes of transport, food, drink, medicine or life saving transportation to hospitals.

“Of course these services could swap over to petrol – but at a price.

“The numbers have been crunched and it seems diesel isn’t so bad afterall; so instead of charging motorists more money on top of tax, increasing insurance premiums and more, I think we should just let bygones be bygones and enjoy the ride.”

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