What is the future of Diesel?

It is currently estimated that there are approximately 1 million users of company cars in the United Kingdom alone, with a vast proportion of these cars being diesel. Diesel cars were promoted as a more environmentally friendly option compared to petrol by the EU in 1997, however, research has since proven that this isn’t necessarily the case and both cars harm the environment in similar ways.

In 2017, the Guardian revealed that European data proves that modern diesel cars produce 10 times more toxic air pollution than that of heavy trucks and buses with the main pollutant being Nitrogen oxide which is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths across Europe. To try and combat the amount of Diesel cars being purchased by firms to be given to staff as a company car, the UK government announced in the 2017 Autumn budget that the existing company car tax diesel supplement will be increasing from 3% to 4% in April 2018, hopefully improving the air quality in the UK by encouraging fleet providers into the cleanest diesel engines alongside Petrol and other low-emission vehicles.

With electric car sales soaring over the last four years, increasing from 3,500 in 2013 to 135,000 in January 2018, it is hoped that the future of company car schemes will involve this new sort after car. The UK government currently aims to replace all diesel and petrol cars with electric cars by 2040, meaning that all company car fleets by this time will have to be electric or using an alternative fuel that also gives off zero emissions.

With there being much debate around diesel cars over the past few years, in particular the Volkswagen emission scandal, surely now is the time to consider electric vehicles as a better alternative, especially in the company car sector whereby most workers will only use their car to get to and from work.

Author: Xavier Lewis Rodriguez / Bridging to the Future