The bar chart illustrates how many new cars were sold in a country by fuel type between 2006 and 2024.
Overall, there was a clear shift away from petrol and diesel towards hybrid and electric cars, with electric cars becoming the best-selling type by 2024. Diesel showed the most dramatic fall.
In 2006, petrol car sales stood at 120,000, followed by diesel at 90,000, while hybrid and electric cars each sold only 5,000. Petrol sales peaked at 130,000 in 2012, before falling slightly to 110,000 by 2024. Diesel followed a similar pattern at first, rising to 110,000 in 2012. However, it then fell sharply to just 20,000 by 2024, which means it dropped by more than four fifths from its peak.
By contrast, hybrid and electric cars became much more popular. Hybrid sales rose steadily to 60,000 in 2024, overtaking diesel. Electric car sales grew slowly until 2012, but then increased dramatically, reaching 120,000 in 2024 and overtaking petrol to become the best-selling type. In other words, electric car sales rose twenty-fourfold over the period.
