The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has published its annual report on cars on Europe’s roads. According to the report, Poland is a powerhouse in terms of the number of buses, trucks and LPG cars. 

This year’s ACEA report covers the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), the UK and the EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The passenger car fleet in the European Union increased by 1.2 % compared to 2020, reaching 250 million vehicles. With the exception of Slovenia, where cars are running 4.1 % less than a year earlier, all other countries saw increases. The largest in Slovakia, where as many as 8.2 % more vehicles were on the road 

In Poland, there were exactly 25,896,804 “passenger cars” on the roads in 2021, which is an increase of 3 % compared to 2020. There were just over 30 million of all vehicles, of which 2.9 million were light commercial vehicles (a total of 29.5 million in the EU), 126,000 were buses and coaches (714,008 in the EU) and the rest were trucks (1,234,704 units). 

Poland is a powerhouse in the last two categories. We have the largest fleet of buses and coaches in Europe (126,547 units), ahead of Italy (100,199) and France (94,523), as well as lorries. 

According to the report, almost 45 % of passenger cars on Polish roads are petrol cars. They are followed by diesel-powered vehicles (39.9 %,) and then by cars with LPG (13.4). In this case, Poland is the absolute leader in the European Union, ahead of Italy (7.0 % of cars with LPG) and Croatia (3.4%). 

On average, there are 567 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants in the European Union. The highest rate is in Luxembourg (698 vehicles per 1,000 people) and the lowest in Romania (396 vehicles per 1,000 people). Poland is in second place with 684, ahead of Italy (672), Cyprus (661), the Czech Republic (588) and Germany (584).

Arkadiusz Słomczyński