Diesel cars increase on Preston roads despite pollution warning

The Government aims to end to sales of new conventional petrol and diesel cars by 2040 as part of efforts to clean up transport.

In Preston, there were 24,438 registered diesel cars by the end of 2018, and 6,329 diesel vans.

They made up 44 per cent of the area’s vehicles, while around one in every 330 were ultra low emissions vehicles - an electric or plug-in hybrid car.

Across the UK, 43 per cent of all vehicles are diesel and one in 200 are ULEVs.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “These figures show there remains a gaping hole between the ambition to green the vehicle fleet and the reality on the road.

“The relatively slow take up of electric cars shows how important government incentives remain.

“The data also underlines the continued dominance of diesel. Whilst there are more petrol cars than diesel, diesel fuel sells at almost twice the volume because of its use in almost all commercial vehicles including HGVs and the fast-rising number of vans.”

The number of diesel cars and vans in Preston has increased by 12 per cent since 2015, when the environmental impact was highlighted after Volkswagen was caught cheating emissions tests. That’s 3,300 more diesel cars and vans on the streets.

Nick Molden, chief executive of Emissions Analytics, an emissions testing company, explained: “Diesel cars give off less carbon dioxide per mile than petrol cars.

“That was the reason for promoting them in the first place.

“After the Volkswagen scandal people became aware of the nitrogen oxides problem, which diesel cars inherently have, and require the correct exhaust treatment system to contain.”