&gt; To complete the large incentive toward diesels, EU governments also manipulated the price of diesel fuel itself, keeping it below gasoline. They also taxed the registration of diesel-powered passenger cars at a much lower rate.<p>I&#x27;m not sure about the rest of Europe, but I know as a fact this isn&#x27;t true for Italy. Diesel fuel used to be cheaper when most cars were gasoline powered, and cracking needed to be used to get more gasoline from the same amount of oil. Now that consumption moved heavily towards diesel, the price is almost the same as gasoline (as is expected). They are taxed exactly the same AFAIK.<p>As for registration fees, until I think 15 years ago we actually had much higher cost for diesels, because they were more polluting (particulate and other nasty things). Those surcharges were only scrapped after technological advances greatly improved those pollution problems.