In 2015 the diesel passenger car held a roughly 47.6% share of all new car registrations in Germany - essentially even with petrol. By 2025 diesel was at 14.5%. That is a 33-percentage-point decline in a decade, the steepest single-fuel collapse in any major auto market on record.
The Inflection: Dieselgate (September 2015)
The VW emissions scandal broke in September 2015. Diesel share started declining the following month and never recovered. By 2018 Germany was implementing Euro-6 retrofit rules and city-level diesel bans (Hamburg, Stuttgart). The political and regulatory environment turned hard against diesel almost overnight.
The Replacement Fuels
Diesel's lost ~33 share points were taken by hybrids (~+24 points), BEVs (~+18 points), and PHEVs (~+8 points combined). Petrol was roughly flat in share over the same decade, although petrol mild-hybrid versions inflated petrol counts.
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.