According to the European Statistical Office, the most cars in relation to the number of inhabitants were in Italy, Luxembourg and Finland in 2024. Cyprus, Estonia and Poland came in the following places. The smallest number of vehicles per thousand inhabitants was registered in Latvia, Romania and Hungary. The average for all 27 EU Member States is 576 cars.
The number of cars per thousand Poles has been systematically growing in recent years. Even in 2015 it was 474 cars, i.e. below the EU average (508), which placed Poland in 20th place in Europe. We crossed the level of 500 cars two years later, which gave 19th place in Europe. We jumped to the European top ten in 2022, ahead of the Czech Republic and Lithuania. In 2024 it amounted to 611, i.e. by 2.7 percent more year to year, which gave Sixth place in the Union and Eighth in Europe.
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Over the past decade, Poland overtook in this ranking, among others Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic and Belgium. At the same time, Poland is one of the three countries in the EU, in which consumers are the least often deciding to buy an electric car.
Poles avoid electricians
In the previous year, 10 million 724 thousand were registered throughout the EU. new passenger vehicles, of which 1 million 453 thousand They were electric cars. This means a decrease in the share of electric cars among new cars compared to the previous year. In 2023, cars powered only electrically accounted for 14.6 percent. all new passenger vehicles in the EU, while in 2024 – 13.6 percent
The highest share of electric cars among cars traveling for the first time on roads was recorded in Denmark (51.3 percent), in Malta (37.7 percent) and in Sweden (34.9 percent). However, the lowest – in Croatia (1.8 percent), in Slovakia (2.4 percent) and in Poland (3 percent).
The number of new passenger cars registered in Poland in 2024 amounted to 554 thousand. 248, among them only 16564 cars were electrics. In addition, we bought 137 thousand hybrid cars, although among them only 15,000 more expensive plug-in hybrids. Among the new cars, those with gasoline engines predominate – in the previous year 421 thousand were registered. 864 such vehicles. Thus, cars for gasoline accounted for 76 percent. all new passenger cars in 2024 in Poland.
The oldest cars in Poland
Eurostat also pointed out that Poland is still at the forefront of countries with a significant share of passenger cars of 20 or more. The European Statistical Office, however, has data for Poland for 2023 – then old cars accounted for almost 30 percent. all registered passenger vehicles. In 2024, the highest share of old cars was recorded in Estonia (36.6 percent), Romania (36 %) and Finland (34.2 percent).
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In addition, 44.1 percent accounted for this car from 10 to 20 years in Poland. fleet, i.e. together There were as much as 74 percent over 10 years. cars. Poles usually buy heavily discounted cars from Germans and French, hence the age structure deviates high from the EU average.
New cars under two years are only 5.6 percent. Polish fleet of passenger vehicles. As many as 12 European countries and six European Union have lower results here. The smallest share of new cars is in Albania (1.5 percent), and from EU countries – in Romania (3.5 percent). Luxembourg (20.2 percent), Germany (15 percent) and Norway (14.8 percent) have the highest percentage of new cars.
As Eurostat emphasized, the number of cars registered in EU countries has grown in recent years, exceeding 259 million in 2024.
It grows, although still slowly, the number of electric cars, in 2024 it amounted to nearly 6 million – 117 times more than in 2013 and 10 times more than in 2019.
