For five years, mileage has been falling while car density has been rising
The German car population is growing, but it is making fewer journeys overall. This is the fifth consecutive decline for passenger cars and the fourth for vans.
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The Federal Motor Transport Authority presents new figures on the number of vehicles and annual mileage. They confirm the trend towards lower mileage despite a further increase in the number of cars. In 2023, motor vehicles registered in Germany covered 709.1 billion kilometers – that is 0.5 percent less than in 2022 and a decrease of 39 billion kilometers compared to 2018.
At 591.1 billion kilometers, passenger cars account for the lion's share of annual mileage, a decrease of 0.6 percent compared to the previous year. On average, 12,320 kilometers were driven per car – 1.2 percent less than in 2022. Cars with petrol engines drove 287.0 billion kilometers, which is 48.6 percent of all kilometers driven and two percent less than in the previous year. The annual mileage per vehicle therefore fell to 9580 km per year. At 238.1 billion kilometers, the annual mileage of cars with diesel engines also continued to fall in the same period, by 4.6 percent. The average annual diesel car mileage was therefore only 17,187 km.
Strong increase in alternative drive systems
Electric, gas, hybrid and other drives, grouped together by the KBA under "Other", achieved a combined annual mileage of 66.0 billion kilometers, their share rising sharply to 11.2 percent year-on-year. Overall, annual mileage in 2023 fell below the 2019 level. Only light trucks with a gross vehicle weight of up to 3.5 tons drove 0.9 percent more, although their number increased by 3.1 percent in the same period. Here, too, the increase was more than offset, with the average annual mileage per car falling slightly to 18,355 km. At 0.6 percent in 2023, the average vehicle stock of passenger cars increased significantly less than that of vans up to 3.5 tons, while the average annual mileage per passenger car fell further to 12,320 km, corresponding to a decrease of 1.2 percent.
The data basis was provided by the mileage readings of the vehicles during the general inspections. According to the KBA definition, the mileage of motor vehicles is the total number of kilometers driven by motor vehicles on a defined road network within a defined period of time.
(fpi)