"Bin Diesel" headline on the front page of the Sun

[spreadsheet monkey]

Yes, I know, ridiculous newspaper, slow news day etc.

But how real is the claim that "Diesel pumps will start to disappear in 4 years"?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgnvqqk9p9o

[Red9zero]

Coincidentally, I am just watching some overlanders on Youtube and they are struggling to find any filling stations selling diesel. It took them six attempts to find any. I suspect that may be more of a supply issue though. The Sun article seems to mention London specifically, which is more understandable I guess. Out here in the South West I'd have thought the commercial vehicles needing diesel would keep the demand going for a while yet.

[alangla]

spreadsheet monkey said:

Yes, I know, ridiculous newspaper, slow news day etc.

But how real is the claim that "Diesel pumps will start to disappear in 4 years"?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgnvqqk9p9o

Utterly unrealistic IMO. There will still be plenty of new diesel vans being built and these will still be numerous enough for there to be diesel on every forecourt.
Given newer petrol stations seem to go down the line of every grade on every pump, I can’t see the number of pumps per station declining either.

In saying all that, I think the number of forecourts will decline significantly over the next 10 or so years. By 2040 or so it ll likely be the current HGV stations that are left retailing petrol and diesel with the smaller stations gone or all electric.

[J4CKO]

Fuel stations will dwindle but think diesel will be around a long time as so many cars still use it, most haulage, generators, shipping and whatever.

A lot of petrol stations have closed already over the last 40 years but think that is, in a lot of cases down to the supermarkets swooping in and setting up, putting smaller stations out of business. We had four locally, that dropped to three a few years back.

I suspect some will be converted to charging, but reckon it will take another 30 years before they are mostly gone, dont think anyone will have a personal diesel car in the 2050s, but remains to be seen how much of the other use gets electrified.

[JoshSm]

Must depend on where you are, they've been busy building new petrol stations around me. Proper big branded sites too (couple of Shell, couple of BP), and it wasn't exactly a fuel desert before.

They're not even filling in a gap in the Costa/Greggs/mini-supermarket space.

Seems to just be demand.

[alangla]

JoshSm said:

Must depend on where you are, they've been busy building new petrol stations around me. Proper big branded sites too (couple of Shell, couple of BP), and it wasn't exactly a fuel desert before.

They're not even filling in a gap in the Costa/Greggs/mini-supermarket space.

Seems to just be demand.

EG seem to be spending a fair bit on building not-quite-MSAs just now, massive fuel company branded sites with HGV pumps, fast food, big shop etc, right next to major motorway junctions. I’m thinking that might be the way things go in the years ahead with the smaller stations closing.

[defblade]

I'm looking for a large-ish car at the moment, maybe £10k or so. The model I was last looking at had 57 in my price range on Autotrader - 3 were petrols and 54 were diesels. I suspect diesel will be around for a few more years yet.

[Wills2]

There are about 16 million diesel cars and vans on the roads, they will be around for a long time yet, around 400,000 new diesel vans and cars were sold in 2025 (75/25 split in favour of vans).

It's a long slow process to swap the UKs car fleet over and diesel will have a place in the energy mix for a long time.

[S600BSB]

Can’t see diesel disappearing any time soon, but still wouldn’t want an oil burner on my drive now. Personal choice obviously.

[CHLEMCBC]

It's the sun. Not familiar with "the truth"/

[Drive Blind]

the big change will start when the first supermarket stops selling diesel. They all copy each other so the others will follow soon after.

I read somewhere the supermarkets supply nearly 50% of the fuel in the UK.

[A500leroy]

80% of the Royal mail fleet is diesel and that's the biggest van fleet in the country.

[mikef]

There are a few small garages selling leaded petrol

They will be doing diesel in 4 years, don’t worry

[itcaptainslow]

CHLEMCBC said:

It's the sun. Not familiar with "the truth"/

This, really. All they care about is scaremongering, moral panic, getting people angry and selling newspapers/getting clicks.

[DaveCWK]

They might start to disappear a bit. But fuel stations as a whole have been gradually disappearing for 20 years anyway (unrelated to ev) and had anyone really noticed? I'm sure diesel will remain readily available for at least the next 30yrs.

[alabbasi]

Probably shilling for a special interest.

[RicksAlfas]

If they ban diesel the haulage market will be in a mess! Who writes this stuff? There was a big new filling station built near work a couple of years ago. They bought a decent size 30 year old office block and knocked it down. Lots of pumps for all fuels and chargers too. In fact I don't see any decline in the number of fillings stations at all. Maybe it's a regional thing.

[king arthur]

It's utter nonsense. Around here in North Devon the weapon of choice is a Landrover or a 4x4 double cab pickup or.....a tractor. Fuel stations would stop selling diesel at their peril.

[Terminator X]

I call BS.

105k diesels for sale on AT and 45k of them are over 10 years old.

AI tells me that:

"As of mid-2025, there were approximately 10.4 million diesel vehicles registered in the UK"

TX.

[alangla]

RicksAlfas said:

If they ban diesel the haulage market will be in a mess! Who writes this stuff? There was a big new filling station built near work a couple of years ago. They bought a decent size 30 year old office block and knocked it down. Lots of pumps for all fuels and chargers too. In fact I don't see any decline in the number of fillings stations at all. Maybe it's a regional thing.

This fits with what I’m suggesting. Fewer, larger, sites and more of a slant towards serving HGVs rather than your typical small forecourt in the middle of town or a supermarket car park.
I wouldn’t be surprised if local planners actually started prohibiting new build supermarket forecourts in the near future anyway.