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New research models impact of diesel scrappage scheme

Switching drivers of 10-year-old diesels to petrols would reduce NOx but increase carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, latest research from Kwik Fit has found.

Kwik Fit - 10 year old diesel cars infographic

Kwik Fit – 10 year old diesel cars infographic

Carried out as the Government continues to come under pressure to implement a diesel scrappage scheme, the firm’s analysis of the latest government national car population data found there are approximately 3,476,000 diesel cars first registered in 2007 or before on UK roads, driving around 30.2 billion miles a year – an average of 8,676 miles each.

Following a recent study by Kwik Fit that found only a third of diesel owners would buy another diesel vehicle when they replace their current model, the analysis indicated that switching drivers of 10-year-old diesels to petrols would bring about a 9.2 million kg drop in the level of NOx emissions per year but could see a 24.3 million kg increase in the level of carbon monoxide emissions, due to the CO limits on petrol engines being higher than for diesel.

The research also looked at the benefits of a switch to latest Euro 6 diesels and found such a move could cut 8.2 million kg of NOx emissions while saving around 173 million gallons of diesel per year. Particulate matter (PM) would fall by 970,000 kg, an 80% decrease, dropping from 1.2 million kg to just over 240,000kg – with a similar figure mooted by a shift to petrols.

The cost of replacing all diesels more than 10 years old with new models, assuming an average new car price of £28,000, would be in excess of £97.3bn.

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Natalie Middleton

Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for over 20 years, previously as assistant editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day.