Forecourts in the UK have seen the volume of fuel they sell fall significantly over the past five years with sales of petrol dropping more than 20 per cent as oil prices have climbed and motorists have switched to more efficient vehicles.

New research from the AA released this morning shows that total sales of petrol and diesel from supermarket and non-supermarket forecourts fell from 37.6bn litres in 2007 to 34.2bn litres last year.

The data also reveals a shift in the fuel mix. Sales of petrol fell drastically from 22.9bn litres to 17.4bn litres, while an increase in sales of more fuel efficient diesel vehicles and the trend towards corporate fleets purchasing fuel from forecourts meant sales of diesel rose from 14.8bn to 16.7bn.

The AA said that total fuel court fuel sales had now fallen 9.3 per cent since 2007, meaning retailers had effectively lost 35 days of sales since the credit crunch.

"Greater take-up of diesel cars and smaller petrol vehicles has contributed to this overall decline in UK fuel sales over the long term," said AA president Edmund King in a statement. "However, soaring pump prices have taken a huge toll on petrol sales more recently - during the 10p-a-litre price surges last March and October, pump sales of petrol fell by up to five per cent."

He added that the trend was likely to continue as petrol and diesel prices are positioned to increase as the global economic recovery gathers pace. "The trouble is that, with global economic recovery, the stock market will predict greater oil and fuel demand and push up commodity values accordingly," he said.

The figures are being taken as cause for concern amongst motoring groups, but will be welcomed by greens as further evidence that the trend for more fuel efficient vehicles is gathering pace.

A spokesman for the AA told BusinessGreen that the fall in fuel sales was the result of both declining levels of traffic and growing demand for more fuel efficient vehicles. "Whenever we poll our members almost everyone is considering fuel efficiency for their next car, you can see from the carbon emission data for new cars that we are burning less fuel," he said.

Figures released earlier this year by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) confirmed average CO2 emissions for new cars fell to 133.1 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km) in 2012, down almost 23 per cent on a decade ago and within sight of the 130g/km target the EU requires automakers to meet by 2015.