According to the findings, North America and Asia together will account for 45 per cent of global annual demand for diesel light vehicles by 2017, compared with just 25 per cent currently.

J.D. Power said diesel was increasingly seen as part of the solution to combat rising CO2 emissions and was no longer associated with poor performance.

As a result, significant growth in most of the major light-vehicle markets can be expected in the next decade. Diesel registrations in the UK have soared in recent years to claim a record 967,436 sales in 2007, accounting for 40.2 per cent of all the new cars sold. Al Bedwell, senior manager at J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting, said the trend was unlikely to last and strong diesel performance would only continue in the short-term. “We are now entering a period when Europe will become less critical as a driver of growth in global diesel light-vehicle demand,” said Bedwell. “In terms of absolute demand, however, Europe will still remain the most dominant region throughout the next decade.”