Car tax change fuels diesel shift
Thursday, 5 November 2009 14:07
People are buying more energy efficient cars as a result of the Government's changes to vehicle registration tax.
According to Sustainable Energy Ireland, this change has not entailed a move towards smaller engine sizes, but a marked shift towards diesel-fuelled vehicles.
This data is contained in the annual report from Sustainable Energy Ireland on energy use in transport. The main statistic is that the share of private car sales in the most efficient emission bands, jumped from 43% to 73% following the introduction of new VRT rates.
SEI's Dr Brian Motherway said this was mainly down to a shift away from petrol rather than smaller engines - between the first and second half of 2008, diesel cars doubled their share of sales.
The recession has affected all transport patterns, with freight transport showing a 6.7% decrease after an average growth of over 8% for many years.
Meanwhile, sales of new cars in Britain soared at an annual rate of 31.6% in October as a result of the state-backed old-for-new scheme, industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said today. It was the fourth monthly increase in a row.
