Editor's note: This story is part of the WardsAuto digital archive, which may include content that was first published in print, or in different web layouts.

Diesel power is gaining ground the Australian auto industry, with the number of registered diesel vehicles up 60.6% in the past five years.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the 2.7 million diesel-powered vehicles represented 15.9% of registered vehicles in Australia on Jan. 31, compared with 14.7% year-ago. The figures include all vehicles in Australia, including motorcycles.

The number of gasoline-powered vehicles fell during the same period from 82.1% to 81.1%, to 13.6 million units.

ABS says while total passenger-vehicle registrations increased 10.9% between 2007 and 2012, the number of diesel-powered vehicles spiked 103.1%. In that 5-year period, light-commercial vehicles using diesel fuel rose 65.2%.

The number of vehicles registered in Australia Jan. 31 was up 2.5% year-on-year, to 16.7 million. This means there were 745 motor vehicles per 1,000 residents, up from 705 per 1,000 in 2007.

Passenger vehicles accounted for 75.9% of all vehicles registered in the latest data, down from 77.6% in 2007. LCVs accounted for 15.6% of the total.

The average age of all registered vehicles, 10 years, was unchanged for the third year in a row. The average age of LCVs increased by 0.6 years.