Privately Owned Car Population Passes 13 Million

There are now more than 13 million privately owned cars in China. The figure excludes Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and represents more than 16 percent growth in the past year.

The total population of privately owned cars in China hit 13,345,652 units as of the end of June 2007, up 16.17 percent or 1,857,541 units compared with the same period last year.

China's Transportation Administration Department and Ministry of Public Security released the statistics on July 3, showing that as of the end of June there were 53,558,098 vehicles on the Chinese mainland, 60.5 percent (32.3 million) of which are privately owned. Thirty-two-point-seven percent, or 17,527,780 units, are cars.

Based on these statistics and taking into consideration that China has roughly 1.3 billion people, currently for 100 Chinese there are 4.12 units of vehicles, 2.49 units of privately owned vehicles, 1.35 units of cars and 1.03 units of privately owned cars.

These statistics indicate a huge potential for the growth of the Chinese automotive market, particularly the privately owned car segment, despite its rapid growth over the last decade or so.