UK automobile organization RAC: Switch to diesel leads to lowest petrol sales in 25 years

Petrol sales fell 10% in March to a record low of 1.31 billion liters following a 4% growth in February when drivers took advantage of prices significantly lower than the year before, according to the latest figures released by fuel authority HMRC, as published by RAC in a press release.

Sales of diesel also dropped by 7% from February to 2.26 billion litres making for a combined 8% drop in fuel sales in March.

Petrol sales in March were 4% down compared to the same month last year while diesel was only down 1%, RAC said.

“March, however, has seen the lowest petrol sales in 25 years, no doubt driven by rising pump prices,” said RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said.

“The decline in petrol sales has been apparent for several years as motorists switched to diesel for better fuel economy and lower carbon dioxide emissions. Diesel fuel sales overtook petrol sales in 2007 (diesel 25.5bn v petrol 24bn litres) and have continued to grow to 27.9bn litres in 2014 in contrast to just 17.6bn litres of petrol,”RAC said.

The UK currently has 35.9m vehicles of which 29.7m are cars. The car park is split between one third diesel vehicles and two-thirds petrol, or gasoline, RAC added.