When will diesel cars be banned in Australia?

The answer isn’t anytime soon, at least nationally, but if you’re wondering if diesel cars will be banned, it seems inevitable. The future of diesel cars in Australia is said to be rather limited and their phasing out is inevitable as they pollute, making them increasingly unpopular.

The fact is, however, that diesel cars, utes and vans are everywhere in Australia and will continue to be so for some time. Diesel engines are popular because they are very fuel efficient and thus provide better range between refueling stops. They also offer more torque and are therefore better suited to towing or hauling heavy loads.

In the short term, however, the ACT has pledged to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 2035, while the Sydney Committee has announced plans to ban diesel cars in 2027. No other state or territory has not committed to a ban schedule. diesel cars, but they could soon announce similar plans as the entire country strives to reduce transportation emissions by 2050.

So why is diesel in the spotlight and why is diesel being phased out? The fact is that all cars with a combustion engine contribute to air pollution and CO2 emissions, but diesel engines are undeniably the worst when it comes to pollution.

Diesel engines produce nitrous oxide, the ugly and dangerous combination of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). But they also emit tiny soot called particles, known as particulate matter (PM). This is why so many vehicles in a city like London appear to have been baked in black dust.

2022 Isuzu D-Max X-Terrain (Image: Sam Rawlings)

The particles remain in the air for a long time and can activate cancer cells in the human body. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified PM as a Group 1 carcinogen. So, not great, then.

A recent Climate Council report insists petrol and diesel vehicles should be banned from sale by 2035 and Australian households should be encouraged to get rid of one of their family cars. The report also reveals Australia has the potential to halve its transport emissions by 2030.

The Climate Council has teamed up with the University of Technology Sydney to produce its Seize the Decade report, which suggests the measures, if taken, could reduce pollution and deliver significant health benefits sooner than expected .

Even without a ban, diesel’s popularity with Australian motorists is rapidly declining. In 2006, only 2.6 percent of passenger cars sold were diesel, compared to 21 percent for SUVs, but these figures then rose to 8.0 percent for passenger cars in 2011. In 2012, 39 percent of SUVs sold in Australia, used diesel.

In 2023, however, just over 4.0 percent of new cars sold were used diesel, while 21.6 percent of SUV sales were equipped with diesel engines.

Importantly, diesel is still extremely popular with buyers of light commercial vehicles – utes and vans – accounting for more than 90 per cent of these vehicles in 2022. And this will make any ban on diesel in Australia very difficult indeed.

However, in the passenger car sector, European manufacturers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which once promoted their diesel vehicles – which were also very popular in Europe – have removed them from their ranges. Even the hugely popular Toyota RAV4 ditched its diesel option in favor of a gasoline-electric hybrid in 2019.

So how would a ban, like the one proposed in the ACT, work? This will not be a ban on buying or owning diesel vehicles, and you will still be able to buy a used one if you wish, as the ban would only affect the sale of new diesel cars ( The ACT intends to ban the sale of new petrol cars in the same year, which seems even more radical and slightly unlikely, at least at this time).

The ACT aims for up to 90 per cent of new cars sold in the ACT to be “green” by 2030, making the 2035 deadline more plausible.

2018 Toyota RAV4 GL (Image: Peter Anderson)

While Canberra may seem like a bold exception in Australian terms, it is only following the lead of the larger European Union, which passed a law effectively banning the sale of new diesel and gasoline vehicles in the EU by 2035.

It is a controversial law that has faced resistance from some member countries, particularly those that make a lot of cars, such as Germany.

If the EU manages to completely ban new diesel cars, this will obviously reduce the number of options Australians will have to purchase when it comes to importing diesel vehicles, as we obviously don’t make them locally.

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport GSR 2025 (Image: Marcus Craft)

While the United States has not yet set a date to ban diesel cars, the very green state of California has passed laws banning the sale of all new gasoline cars after 2035.

Some global cities, such as Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens, have become so concerned about air pollution that they have introduced low-emission zone laws, which ban the driving of even older diesel vehicles. , in city centers.

In Paris, diesel vehicles over 14 years old will no longer be authorized to circulate in the Paris metropolitan area between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. from January 1, 2025, and people who attempt to do so will be heavily fined.