European parc : the IAM playground

Publié le 03/01/2023

Caroline Ridet

Sales of new vehicles have been weak since 2020 and the relative rise in volumes of electric vehicles has not had a significant effect. Here is an inventory of the vehicle fleet in the European Union dated 2020, the only consolidated ACEA figures currently available.

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With an average age of 11.8 years for cars and approximately 75% of them over 5 years old, the vehicle fleet in the EU stands at 246.3 million cars, to which 100 million can be added for Greater Europe (see table). The fleet is completed by 29 million light commercial vehicles, half of which are in France (5.9 million), Italy (4.3 million) and Spain (3.9 million).

These data show that roads full of electric vehicles will not be seen for a few years, except in Norway, an electric trailblazer. This in-built market inertia means the ground remains favourable, for another fifteen years at least, for multi-brand aftersales service outlets, the champions in the maintenance of aging vehicles, to continue repairing and maintaining ICE vehicles.

Average age of EU Vehicle fleet: In ten years, the age of the EU fleet has increased by four years for passenger cars which barely exceeded 8 years old in 2009. It has increased by two years for HGVs, which were under the 12-year mark in 2009. The average age of buses has increased from nine to almost 13 years! Over the same period, light commercial vehicles have barely changed.

Motorisation rates in the EU (Vehicles per 1, 000 inhabitants): On average, for 1,000 inhabitants in the EU, the ACEA study tells us that there are 640 vehicles on the road. In fact, there are 560 passenger cars and 81 commercial vehicles per thousand people. In the United States, there are 816 and 214 in China.

European passenger Car parc by fuel type

Inertia to change means that these 2020 figures remain relevant. Note that diesel versions have lost ground to petrol but not yet to alternative fuel types, their ascension is not on the agenda yet. They still represent only 5.3% of the total car fleet in the EU and full-electric only 0.5%. Even the electric hybrid technology launched more than twenty years ago by Toyota with their Prius has not achieved the expected market share.