Report – Vehicles in use, Europe 2021

The report, which can be downloaded by clicking here, also provides interesting statistics per vehicle segment for each country, such as the average age (as well as the year of first registration), the share of each fuel type, and the number of vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.

This new edition covers the 27 member states of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Fleet size

• In 2019, the European Union passenger car fleet grew by 1.8% compared to 2018, with the number of cars on the road reaching 242.7 million. The highest growth was recorded in Romania (+7%), whereas the French car market contracted slightly (-0.3%) – see page 4.
• More than 28 million vans are in circulation throughout the EU. With 6 million vehicles, France has by far the largest van fleet, followed by Italy (4.2 million vans), Spain (3.8 million) and Germany (2.8 million) – see page 5.
• There are 6.2 million medium and heavy commercial vehicles on the EU’s roads. Counting almost 1.2 million trucks, Poland has the largest fleet, followed closely by Germany (1,010,742) and Italy (946,393) – see page 6.
• Around 692,207 buses are in operation throughout the European Union, almost half of which can be found in three countries alone: Poland, Italy and France – see page 7.

Average age

• EU cars are now on average 11.5 years old. Lithuania, Estonia and Romania have the oldest fleets, with vehicles older than 16 years. The newest cars can be found in Luxembourg (6.5 years) and Austria (8.3 years) – see page 10.
• The average age of light commercial vehicles in the EU is 11.6 years. Among the EU’s four major markets, Spain has the oldest van fleet (13.0 years), followed closely by Italy (12.6 years) – see page 11.
• Trucks are on average 13 years old in the European Union. Aged more than 21 years, Greek trucks are the oldest in the EU. The newest trucks are in Austria (6.4 years) – see page 12.
• The average age of buses on EU roads is 11.7 years. The oldest buses can be found in Greece (19.9 years), while the newest ones are in Austria (4.8 years) – see page 13.

Fuel types

• Despite an increase in registrations in recent years, alternatively-powered cars make up just 4.6% of the total EU car fleet. 0.8% of all cars on our roads are hybrid electric, while both battery electric and plug-in hybrids each account for only 0.2% of the total – see page 14.
• Diesel-powered light commercial vehicles are dominant in all EU countries except for Greece: almost 90% of the EU van fleet runs on diesel. Just 0.3% of vans in the EU are battery electric – see page 15.
• 97.8% of all trucks in the EU run on diesel, while petrol fuels 1.3% of the fleet. 0.04% of trucks on the EU roads are zero-emissions – see page 16.
• Diesel buses still account for 94.5% the EU fleet, with only 0.6% being battery electric – see page 17.

Motorisation rates

• The European Union counts 569 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. Luxembourg has the highest car density in the EU (694 per 1,000 people) and Latvia the lowest (342) – see page 18.
• In Hungary and Latvia half of all households do not own a car, while more than 31% of French families have two cars – see page 20.