A new Belgian study shows that for the first time in 75 years a (minimal) decrease can be seen in the total number of cars on Belgian roads.
According to Automobiel Management, the statistical office Statbel reports that 5,888,589 passenger cars were registered in Belgium on 1 August 2020. A year earlier, the counter stood at 5,889,210. That’s a minuscule drop of only 0.01 percent. At first sight that may seem like nothing, but in fact the decline is greater. The number of passenger cars has increased by an average of 1.27 percent annually over the past ten years. The number of passenger cars has never decreased since the Second World War.
Although diesel cars still account for a very large share of the total, the number of diesels has decreased by 6 percent compared to last year. However, 2,815,755 diesels were still registered this year on 1 August. With a share of 47.8 percent, this is slightly less than the share of petrol cars (48.3 percent). 0.4 percent of all Belgian cars are fully electric.
A total of 11.46 million people live in Belgium (2019). The ratio between cars and residents is therefore approximately 1 to 2.