Diesels Command Growing Share of Australian Market

Diesel power is gaining ground the Australian auto industry, with the number of registered diesel vehicles up 60.6% in the past five years.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the 2.7 million diesel-powered vehicles represented 15.9% of registered vehicles in Australia on Jan. 31, compared with 14.7% year-ago. The figures include all vehicles in Australia, including motorcycles.

The number of gasoline-powered vehicles fell during the same period from 82.1% to 81.1%, to 13.6 million units.

ABS says while total passenger-vehicle registrations increased 10.9% between 2007 and 2012, the number of diesel-powered vehicles spiked 103.1%. In that 5-year period, light-commercial vehicles using diesel fuel rose 65.2%.

The number of vehicles registered in Australia Jan. 31 was up 2.5% year-on-year, to 16.7 million. This means there were 745 motor vehicles per 1,000 residents, up from 705 per 1,000 in 2007.

Passenger vehicles accounted for 75.9% of all vehicles registered in the latest data, down from 77.6% in 2007. LCVs accounted for 15.6% of the total.

The average age of all registered vehicles, 10 years, was unchanged for the third year in a row. The average age of LCVs increased by 0.6 years.