When you’re looking for a pace to see whether or not the diesel models will survive the recent ire they’ve come under, the place to look in Europe. This continent is where more diesel models are sold than any other and the emissions regulations are typically more forgiving than in some of the other global markets of the world. With that in mind, looking at the numbers of what has happened in the automotive market in the recent years, we can see the diesel models are becoming much less popular than they have been in the past.

Last year, the registration of diesel vehicles in Europe dropped by 7.9 percent to a total of 6.76 million which is 43.7 percent of the market, making it the lowest for this part of the market in the past decade. Overall, the European market for total sales has grown to 15.57 million which is an increase of 3.1 percent compared to 2016, which makes this flip in the diesel numbers one that’s certainly worth looking at when you consider the number of models on the roads across the various countries of Europe and the love they have had for diesel models.

Not only Affecting North America

If you thought the diesel issues that we’ve seen in recent history only affected North America, you’d be wrong. Even though the diesel market is fairly healthy in Europe, customers are turning to traditional gasoline engines with a growth of 760,000 models across the various countries. Does this mean the diesel models are heading for extinction or will the vehicles that make use of diesel as the fuel be offered with items that help to control emissions better going forward? With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the numbers.

The top brand for the diesel models that are registered in Europe continues to be Volkswagen with 1.7 million models registered. Coming in second was Renault with 1.1 million vehicles, and Ford was third with 1.05 million models that were registered across the various countries. The most popular diesel model was the Volkswagen Golf with 483,105 registered and the most popular diesel-powered SUV was the Nissan Qashqai which was registered 247,939 times in the past year. These are two impressive numbers that make these vehicles ones that are certainly some of the favorites when it’s time to head out for the drive around the different areas of Europe.

In a similar fashion to what we see in North America, Europe is turning to the SUV segment as one of the most popular areas of the automotive market. Last year a record 4.56 million SUV models were registered in Europe which was a growth of 19.5 percent compared to 2016. Since 2007, the number of SUV models on the roads around Europe has grown to be more than ten percent of the market, making it the fastest-growing segment of vehicles in the area with many of them being diesel models that are still admired in Europe.