Report – Vehicles on European roads 

TABLE OF CONTENTS Cars5Vans6Trucks7Buses8Vans, trucks, and buses9All vehicle segments10 Cars19Vans, trucks, and buses20 FOREWORD ACEA’s ‘Vehicles on European Roads’ report is the go-to publication for the latest data on thenumber of vehicles currently in circulation on Europe’s roads. This report also includes other keydata, such as the average vehicle age, vehicle power types, vehicle ownership, and more. Complementing ACEA’s regular car, van, truck, and bus sales updates, this unique reportprovides a snapshot of what the ‘fleet’ of vehicles on Europe’s roads looks like. The data isrevealing as it demonstrates how the sales data of different vehicle types, such as batteryelectric, tell a different story to the actual makeup of vehicles on Europe’s roads. Despitebattery-electric cars now being the third most-popular choice for new car buyers, with amarket share of almost 15% of sales, they only represent 1.2% of vehicles on EU roads. The data underlines the fact that it can take several years, even decades, for older vehicles to bereplaced by newer ones equipped with cleaner and greener technologies. Older vehicles typicallypossess less efficient technologies, which may result in more emissions and pollution if notreplaced. This emphasises the importance of ensuring that these older vehicles are swiftly replacedby the greenest, cleanest, and safest models that our industry has been investing heavily in. This year’s edition found that the average age of all vehicle types is gradually rising, while the numberof vehicles on roads is up again. There are now 252 million cars on EU roads in 2022, a 1% increasefrom the previous year. The number of vans, trucks, and buses on roads is also rising, reinforcingthe importance of also accelerating the uptake of battery-electric and other zero-emission modelsin Europe for these vehicle segments. Of all vehicle types, buses lead the way, with almost a 2%share being battery electric. The car continues to build on its popularity as an important means oftransport, as the number of cars per 1,000 inhabitants grew yet again. In fact, the data is consistentin showing that a majority of European households still own a car in the countries studied. The report demonstrates that while legislative targets can help steer change, this is only part ofthe puzzle for decarbonising road transport. Europe needs a broader set of framework conditions,such as charging infrastructure and purchase and tax incentives, to stimulate demand for newmodels and replenish vehicles on Europe’s roads with the cleanest and greenest models. Sigrid de VriesACEA Director General KEY FIGURES •In 2022, the EU passenger car fleet grew by 1% compared to 2021, with more than 252 millioncars on the road. Nearly all EU countries expanded their car fleet, with the highest growthseen in Romania (+3.3%).•30.2 million vans are in circulation throughout the EU, nearly half of which can be found inthree countries: France (6.3 million vans), Italy (4.4 million), and Spain (4 million).•There are nearly 6.5 million medium and heavy commercial vehicles on EU roads, up 1.9%compared to 2021. With almost 1.3 million trucks, Poland has the largest truck fleet by far.•720,783 buses are in operation across the EU, almost half of which can be found in threecountries: Poland (128,677), Italy (100,014), and France (94,074).•EU cars are now on average 12.3 years old. Greece and Estonia have the oldest car fleets, withvehicles around 17 years old. The newest cars can be found in Luxembourg (7.9 years).•The average age of light commercial vehicles in the EU is 12.5 years. Of the EU’s four majormarkets, Italy has the oldest van fleet (14.7 years), followed closely by Spain (14 years).•Trucks are on average 13.9 years old in the EU. With an average age of 23 years, Greece hasthe oldest truck fleet, while the newest ones can be found in Austria (6.7 years) and Denmark(7.9 years).•Buses on EU roads are on average 12.5 years old. Aged more than 18 years, Greek buses arethe oldest in the region. Only seven countries in the EU have a bus fleet that is less than 10years old.•Despite the strong increase in sales seen in recent years, electrically chargeable cars (batteryelectric and plug-in hybrid) still make up only 1.2% of the total EU car fleet. In the EU, only sixcountries have a share of battery electric cars higher than 2%.•Diesel-powered light commercial vehicles are still dominant in the EU with 90.7% of the fleetrunning on diesel and just 0.8% of vans being battery electric.•96% of all trucks in the EU run on diesel, while petrol fuels 0.7% of the fleet.Only 0.1% of trucks on EU roads have a zero-emission powertrain.•Diesel buses account for 90.5% of the EU fleet, with only 1.9% being battery electric and 2%hybrid electric. However, significant shares of electric buses can be found in the Netherlands(15.9%), Luxembourg (12.7%), and Ireland (13.1%).•The EU counts 574 passenger cars and 85 commercial vehicles and buses per 1,00