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In the 1990s, purchases of diesel passenger cars in the EU had intensively grown, with the subsequent increase of diesel oil demand. One of the main factors explaining this change on consumer preferences was the improvement in combustion technology of diesel engines. In this context, just because diesel cars use less energy per kilometre than petrol ones, EU authorities have considered dieselization as a phenomenon harmonic with transport policy objectives enhancing the change in consumer preferences for diesel cars with fiscal and technical policies. The process of dieselization was consolidated; European consumers have maintained their preferences for diesel cars over time. The economic literature lacks in the study of dieselization and in the study of dieselization environmental consequences. However, this work tries to shed some light onto this issue analysing, through the estimation of a two-simultaneous-equations model, EU's new diesel passenger car demand and diesel oil demand in the last two decades. The results will permit to characterize the main factors behind the change to dieselization. After this, we will discuss about the environmental implications of the European social option for dieselization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]