Car Stats and Data: Brands, Tyres and Road Safety

Cars in Europe: Basic Facts and Figures

• Black, silver and white, were the most popular car colours in 2017 in the UK. (Source: smmt.co.uk)
• The average car in the UK is 7.7 years old. (Source: statista.com)
• The average passenger car age in the EU is 10.7. (Source: acea.be)

• In 2010, for the first time in the world, the one billion passenger car mark was exceeded. (Source: worldometers.info)
• It is estimated that there will be 2 billion cars in use by the year 2035 globally. (Source: greencarreports.com)

• The number of used cars in the UK was 7.2 million in 2014. (Source: statista.com)
• The number of new cars in the UK was 2.5 million in 2014. (Source: statista.com)
• Between 2006 and 2016 Toyota produced 10.2 million motor vehicles worldwide. (Source: statista.com)

Car Sale Figures

• It is estimated that by 2035 the total car sales may reach 127 million per year. (Source: greencarreports.com)
• Passenger vehicle sales on Asian markets have doubled between 2008 and 2016. (Source: carsalesbase.com)
• In 2017, new car sales noted a decrease for the first time in six years. They fell to about 2.5 million vehicles, which means there was a 5.7% decrease. (Source: SMMT)
• During the past 8 years, vehicle sales in China have quadrupled to reach a staggering number of 28.9 million vehicles in 2017. (Source: statista.com)
• An old Santler Dogcart from 1894 is Britain’s oldest drivable car and it’s worth £250,000. (Source: bonhams.com)
• Germany experienced an increase of 1.4 million vehicles between 2008 and 2009, which was the biggest ever. (Source: smmt.co.uk)

• Road traffic crashes are the 9th leading cause of death and make up 2.2% of all deaths worldwide. (Source: asirt.org)
• While having less than half of the world's vehicles, low and middle-income countries account for over 90% of all road fatalities. (Source: asirt.org)
• It is predicted that if nothing changes, road traffic injuries will become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.(Source: asirt.org)

• On average there are 3,287 deaths due to road accidents a day. That makes up nearly 1.3 million deaths per year. (Source: Annual Global Road Crash Statistics)
• An additional 20-50 million people are injured or disabled per year. (Source: Annual Global Road Crash Statistics)
• More than 50% of all road traffic deaths happen among young adults aged 15-44. (Source: asirt.org)

• In 2016 the number of people seriously injured or killed in tyre-related incidents was 162 and it has since fallen to  158 in 2017. (Source: gov.uk)
• The total casualty number of tyre-related accidents in 2017 was the lowest ever recorded at 876. (Source: www.tyresafe.org)
• In 2016, the number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of tyre-related incidents fell to 753 in England and 60 in Wales, compared to previous years. In Scotland, however, it grew to 63. The South East is the region  with the highest percentage (7%) of the overall number of casualties nationwide. (Source: gov.uk)

• Over one billion pounds a year is spent by tyre manufacturers on further research and development. (Source: btmauk.com)
• The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), estimates that a billion tyres yearly reach the end of their lives. (Source: accellatirefill.com)
• In the UK, there are over 300 brands of tyres on sale. (Source: btmauk.com)
• The tyre industry agreed to follow a European legislation regarding collecting, reusing and recycling all used tyre arisings. (Source: bandvulc.co.uk)

Tyre Size, Inflation and Condition

• Under-inflated tyres are the most common tyre defect. 4psi below the recommended pressure settings is the amount that 57% of cars and vans drive at. (Source: tyresafe.org)
• 37% of cars in the UK run on dangerously under-inflated tyres. (Source: fleetworld.co.uk)
• Proper tyre inflation could save 1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year and £440 million in fuel costs. (Source: btmauk.com)
• Keeping tyres inflated around the recommended level usually helps improve fuel economy by 0.6%. (Source: fueleconomy.gov)
• Tyre related faults account for 25% of MOT failures. (Source: DfT data)
• in 2010, the number of road casualties that were related to defective, illegal, or under-inflated tyres was 1,210. (Source: btmauk.com)
• Over the past 10 years, UK tyre factories have reduced their CO2 emissions by 32% per tonne of tyres produced. (Source: Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse)
• In 2014, the tyre specialist sector employed about 22 thousand people in the UK. (Source: tyreindustryfederation.co.uk)
• The total volume of retail sales of replacement tyres in the UK is approximately £3.2 billion per year. (Source: btmauk.com)
• 53% of vehicles checked in 2012 had at least one illegal tyre. (Source: simplemotoring.co.uk)
• The energy efficiency of the tyre manufacturing industry has grown by 20% since 2004 and its carbon footprint is predicted to keep reducing. (Source: etrma.org)
• The legal requirement for a car tyre tread depth is unknown to 68% of UK drivers. (Source: TyreShopper.co.uk)
• Each tyre has a contact patch that keeps the car on the road while cornering and braking and it’s the size of the palm of a hand. (Source: btmauk.com)

Car Ownership

• The number of cars per capita in the EU was 573 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants in 2015. (Source: acea.be)
• Female car ownership hit a new record high in 2017 with 11.8 million vehicles. (Source: smmt.co.uk)
• In 2016, the Ford Fiesta (119,000), followed by the Vauxhall Corsa (76,000), the Volkswagen Golf (71,000) and the Ford Focus (70,000) were the most popular new car models in Great Britain. (Source: gov.uk)
• During the past 2 decades, the vehicle market has grown by 42%. Vans increased by 74%, and motorcycles by 69%. An increase in HGVs was 15% and buses and coaches only 2%.
• If a normally used car is serviced regularly, its gas mileage can be improved more or less by 4%. (Source: fueleconomy.gov)

Car Registration and Licence

• In 2015 the total number of cars on the roads worldwide was higher than 1.282 billion. (Source: statista.com)
• In 2016 3.3 million cars were registered for the first time in Great Britain which was the highest annual total ever recorded. (Source: gov.uk)
• In 2017, the total number of car registrations in the UK was around 2,383,517 (Source: smmt.co.uk)
  • Jan - 174,564,
  • Feb - 83,115,
  • Mar - 562,337,
  • Apr - 152,076,
  • May - 186,265,
  • Jun - 243,454,
  • Jul - 161,997,
  • Aug - 76,433,
  • Sep - 426,170,
  • Oct - 158,192,
  • Nov - 163,541,
  • Dec - 152,47
• March and September were the months with the highest number of car registrations during 2017. The lowest number of cars was registered in August and February. (Source: smmt.co.uk)

Cars and the Environment

Biofuels

• The most commonly used substitute for regular, oil-based diesel for diesel vehicles in the UK is biodiesel. (Source: simplemotoring.co.uk)
• The most common usage of biodiesel are biodiesel blends. Blends approved by car manufacturers are B5 (5% biodiesel and 95% petroleum diesel) for all diesel engines. In some newer car models, B20 blends (20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) are approved. (Source: fueleconomy.gov)
• A blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline called E10 is legally accepted for use in all gasoline-powered vehicles. (Source: fueleconomy.gov)
• The size of the global liquid biofuels market reached nearly £55.1 billion in 2016. (Source: statista)

Green Cars

• In the UK, almost 14 thousand new ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) were registered over the period of the first 3 months of 2017, which is 17% more than in the first 3 months of 2016. (Source: gov.uk)
• Diesel cars accounted for 10% of all cars in the UK in 1996. By the end of 2016, there were 12.1 million diesel cars, which is 39% of the total. (Source: gov.uk)
• By the end of 2016, there were 388,000 alternative fuel powered cars in the UK. (Source: gov.uk)
• In 2015, 55.6% of cars in the European Union were fueled with petrol, 42.1% with diesel, and 3.2% with alternative fuels. (Source: acea.be)
• In 2015, both the UK and the Netherlands were countries with the highest share of electric cars in the European Union, with EVs constituting 0.4% of all vehicles. (Source: acea.be)
• Currently, there are two hydrogen cars available in the UK, the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai ix35. (Source: express.co.uk, nextgreencar.com)
• Nearly 42,000 new ultra low emission vehicles were registered in the United Kingdom in 2016, which is an increase of 40% since 2015. (Source: gov.uk)

Car Finance

• The estimated cost of road crashes in low and middle-income countries is £51.1 billion per year. It is more than the total amount received in developmental assistance. (Source: asirt.org)
• Globally, road crashes cost us £39 billion, which for individual countries means 1-2% of their annual GDP. (Source: asirt.org)

• The average early (over the first 3 years) car maintenance costs are the highest for: Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, Subaru, Audi, Mazda, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Dodge, Kia and Jeep (with similar maintenance costs), Ford. (Source: consumerreports.org)
• The average long-term (over 10 years) car maintenance costs are the highest for: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar, Volvo, Mini, Porsche, Infiniti, Subaru, Volkswagen, Acura, Lexus, Jeep, Cadillac, Saab GMC, Nissan, Chrysler, Dodge, Saturn, Honda, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Mercury, Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Buick. (Source: consumerreports.org)