Leaving aside the journalistic integrity of the programme itself, the main point for me is that air quality, particularly in cities, has become a major issue and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. As a result the politicians, keen to be seen to be doing something about it, are likely to start clamping down on diesel over the next five to ten years, making them increasing unattractive.
Yes the latest EU6 standard for diesels is a good step and I believe it more than halves the allowable NOx emissions over the previous levels but the problem is that only a tiny fraction of the diesels on our roads conform to this standard. Whilst a modern diesel which conforms to EU6 and has a particulate filter may be far less harmful, we all know full well how many older models there are still belching out all sorts of nasties.
The government will start trying to force people out of such cars, either into newer, cleaner diesels or, even better, into petrols or petrol hybrids. In my opinion, the next decade will see a massive rise in the number of electric-petrol hybrids available and there will be tax incentives to buy and run such vehicles whilst disincentives are introduced to get people out of older, dirtier cars.
You only have to look at the Paris proposals to ban all diesel cars from the capital and measures are already being discussed for London, such as an additional congestion charge for diesel vehicles.
