Toyota to axe diesel cars this year

TOYOTA will stop selling new diesel cars in Britain and Europe by the end of the year.

The shock announcement that diesel will be dead within nine months was made by the firm’s bosses at a briefing before the Geneva Motor Show.

The landmark decision marks another nail in the coffin for what has been dubbed ‘dirty diesel’ in the wake of the Volkswagen ‘diesel-gate’ scandal.

Instead, Toyota is to boost its sales of petrol-electric hybrid cars, which accounted for 45 per cent of UK sales last year, rising to 48 per cent in January.

Fewer than 7 per cent of its UK sales were diesel last year, dropping to just 4.5 per cent in January, the company said.

It comes as major car-makers at the Swiss show move away from diesel and showcase their next-generation electric and hybrid vehicles. Toyota said the next-generation Auris, to be built at the firm’s Burnaston factory in Derbyshire, would not include a diesel option, but would include two electric hybrids.

Johan van Zyl, president and chief executive officer of Toyota Motor Europe, said last night: ‘Toyota will stop selling diesel passenger cars in all European markets by the end of this year. In some markets they will be phased out even faster – some by the end of this quarter.’