UK diesel sales boom

More British drivers are switching to more efficient diesel cars as petrol sales continue to fall, a report said on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - More British drivers are switching to more efficient diesel cars as petrol sales continue to fall, a report said on Tuesday.

Diesel sales in Britain rose 869,000 tonnes, or about four percent, to 21 million tonnes last year, a jump of nearly 40 percent over the last decade, said the latest UK Retail Marketing Survey from the Energy Institute.

"This level is 38.77 percent higher than a decade ago, illustrating how strong the move to diesel has become," the Energy Institute said.

In contrast, UK petrol sales have fallen by 17 percent over the last 10 years.

The number of vehicles in the UK reached an all-time high of 33.4 million last year, the institute said.

The switch to diesel is also seen in the four other large European economies -- France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Diesel use has been rising steadily at 2 percent a year.

Swiss-based analysts Petromatrix have forecast that at the current rate, diesel will account for 80 percent of transport fuel sales in the five major economies in about 10 years.

Diesel represented 45 percent of transport fuel demand in these countries in 1997, a figure which rose to 64 percent last year.