The line graph illustrates the amount of cars registered for the first time by fuel type from 2001 to 2016.
Overall, registrations of petrol cars fell significantly throughout the time, while diesel cars increased at first but then dropped sharply after 2013. Meanwhile, alternative-fuel vehicles remained the least common but showed a gradual and steady rise.
In 2001, more than 2 million cars were registered with petrol and around half a million with diesel. At that time, people preferred only these two fuel types, as registrations for alternative-fuel vehicles were almost nonexistent.
From 2001 to around 2006, petrol registrations continued to decline, falling to about 1.5 million. In contrast, diesel cars became more popular and rose to nearly 1 million in the same period. After 2006, petrol numbers kept dropping and reached their lowest point in 2011, at just under 1 million.
Diesel cars stayed stable for a few years, then rose and overtook petrol in 2011, peaking at about 1.6 million in 2013 before dropping sharply to 0.8 million in 2016. Alternative-fuel vehicles, though very low in 2001, increased gradually and reached around 0.4 million by 2016.