A week before the diesel ban in Oslo was enforced, sales statistics showed that diesel is becoming less popular among new car buyers. A scant third of new passenger cars in 2016 was diesel run.
Specifically, 31% of the new cars purchased last year had a diesel engine. The year before, the proportion had been 41%, while in the peak year of 2011, 75% of new cars sold ran on diesel, reported VG newspaper, based on figures from the trade association, the Council for Road Traffic (OFV).
In Oslo, diesel had already become less popular than elsewhere in the country. Every fourth newly registered passenger car in the capital last year ran on diesel.
OFV Director Øyvind Thorsen doesn’t think the diesel ban introduced in Oslo on Tuesday is the right solution for reducing pollution.
‘They all contribute and help share the load. One could, for example, have had the date of the last number on the license plate determining whether one can run’, he said.
Thorsen added that many older vehicles that run on gasoline and petrol emit as much nitrogen oxide and particles, and stir up just as much road dust as diesel cars.
‘Gasoline and petrol fuelled cars are not necessarily better’, said Thorsen