January 17 (SeeNews) - Slovenia was the only EU country to record a contraction in the number of passenger cars in 2021, of 4.1%, as the EU passenger car fleet grew by an annual 1.2% to nearly 250 million cars on the road, excluding Bulgaria and Malta, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday.
The highest growth rate was in Slovakia, at 8.2%, while Romania's passenger car fleet increased by 4.6% in 2021 to some 7.6 million, the fastest rate of increase among the four EU members from Southeast Europe (SEE) for which data was available, ACEA said in its annual Vehicles in Use report.
The EU also had 29.5 million vans in circulation the year before last, with the highest numbers found in France. Romania and Denmark posted the only declines in light commercial vehicle fleets, of 11.8% and 0.8%, respectively. By contrast, Romania showed the only double digit growth year-on-year in the number of medium and heavy commercial vehicles on EU roads, of 26% to 437,267.
Greece, along with Estonia, had the oldest car fleet, with passenger vehicles 17 years old. Greece also had the oldest truck fleet, with an average age of 22.7 years.
Electric cars, both battery electric and plug-in hybrid, still make up a small percentage of the total EU car fleet, at 1.5%, against 51.1% for petrol-fuelled cars, despite strong EV sales in recent years. Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands topped the list, with overall electric car shares of 6%, 5.2% and 4.3%, respectively while in each of the four SEE states the share did not reach 1%. Diesel-powered commercial vehicles are still dominant in the EU with 91% of vans and 96.4% of trucks running on diesel. The majority of buses in the EU also run on diesel at 92.5%.