Number of cars in China 2011-2021
By 2021, the number of cars in China amounted to 302 million cars. Over the past decade, car parc in China has been increasing significantly by nearly 1.9 times.
Status quo of car parc in China
Car parc refers to the number of vehicles in use in a region, generally having registered in the area. However, car parc differs from vehicle parc by excluding motorcycles and agricultural vehicles. The car parc of China has been increasing exponentially due to the rapidly increasing new vehicle registration. Guangdong leads country wide as the province hosting the most registered vehicles. Currently Guangdong had around 2.2 million new registered vehicles in 2020. Besides, Guangdong has always been the province with the highest number of drivers since 2011, which stood at 43.8 million in 2020. In the same year, new small passenger vehicles were registered the most at over 19.6 million units while new registrations of other passenger vehicles ranged from nearly 5,200 to 86,900 units.
Problem and solutions
The effect of the constantly increasing car parc started showing in the last few years as heavy traffic jams and deteriorating air quality, particularly in Beijing. Some cities like Beijing have introduced car plate policies to allow cars to be driven on a certain day depending on the last digit of the plate, which did not stop the car parc in China from increasing. Therefore, other measures were introduced to discourage car use, for example, in Beijing and Shanghai, one needs to win a complicated lottery process to earn a license plate before they can go on the road, which could cost more than the vehicle itself. However, despite the increase of car parc, Shenzhen and Guangzhou has been increasing the monthly quota of new license plates issued since 2019, as the central government looks to stimulate vehicle sales and consumption in China after recent weak sales.
Status quo of car parc in China
Car parc refers to the number of vehicles in use in a region, generally having registered in the area. However, car parc differs from vehicle parc by excluding motorcycles and agricultural vehicles. The car parc of China has been increasing exponentially due to the rapidly increasing new vehicle registration. Guangdong leads country wide as the province hosting the most registered vehicles. Currently Guangdong had around 2.2 million new registered vehicles in 2020. Besides, Guangdong has always been the province with the highest number of drivers since 2011, which stood at 43.8 million in 2020. In the same year, new small passenger vehicles were registered the most at over 19.6 million units while new registrations of other passenger vehicles ranged from nearly 5,200 to 86,900 units.
Problem and solutions
The effect of the constantly increasing car parc started showing in the last few years as heavy traffic jams and deteriorating air quality, particularly in Beijing. Some cities like Beijing have introduced car plate policies to allow cars to be driven on a certain day depending on the last digit of the plate, which did not stop the car parc in China from increasing. Therefore, other measures were introduced to discourage car use, for example, in Beijing and Shanghai, one needs to win a complicated lottery process to earn a license plate before they can go on the road, which could cost more than the vehicle itself. However, despite the increase of car parc, Shenzhen and Guangzhou has been increasing the monthly quota of new license plates issued since 2019, as the central government looks to stimulate vehicle sales and consumption in China after recent weak sales.
