In 2015 the diesel passenger car held a 48.0% share of all new car registrations in Germany, just behind petrol's 50.3% (KBA 2015 figures via Autohaus). By 2025 diesel was at 13.8% (KBA, 2025). That is a decline of about 34 percentage points in a decade, one of the steepest single-fuel collapses in any major auto market.
The Inflection: Dieselgate (September 2015)
The VW emissions scandal broke in September 2015. Diesel share began falling the following year and never recovered. From 2018 German cities started imposing diesel driving bans, first Hamburg, then Stuttgart. The political and regulatory environment turned hard against diesel almost overnight.
The Replacement Fuels
Petrol lost share too, falling from 50.3% to 27.2%. The winners were electrified cars: in 2015 all alternative drives together were 1.7% of the market, while in 2025 non-plug-in hybrids took about 28.6% (many of them mild-hybrid petrol cars), BEVs 19.1% and plug-in hybrids 10.9%.
Why Diesel Hangs On at All
Long-distance commercial fleets and large premium SUVs (Audi Q7 TDI, BMW X5 30d, Mercedes GLE) continue to specify diesel. The towing torque, range, and fuel economy advantages on long motorway runs remain real.
See the German fuel-mix evolution as a stacked bar on the Germany dashboard.