70% of the public in Spain think there are too many cars on our roads

The total number of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, lorries and buses on our roads rose last year by 1.01% to 30,722,465 vehicles.

The average age of all vehicles driving around Spain continues to rise and now exceeds 14 years. Specifically, passenger cars are on average 14.2 years old, light commercial vehicles or vans are 14.4 years old, larger commercial vehicles and lorries are 14.9 years old, while buses remain steady at 11.8 years, according to a report drawn up by IDEAUTO based on data from Directorate-General of Traffic (DGT).

This number of vehicles circulating on the nation's roads, and especially in our cities, means that the majority of the public - seven out of ten to be exact - consider that there is an excess of private cars in their city. This figure comes from a study on the use of multi mobility modes of transport for commuting in Spain carried out by the FREENOW taxi-booking app.

In this regard multi mobility is gaining increasing importance in Spanish society. As a result, there has been a notable increase in the use of micromobility vehicles such as electrical bikes, scooters, mopeds and motorbikes and the transport model of car-sharing. The numbers are on the up, with 43% of the population having used one of these modes of transport at some point, compared to only 32% in 2023 (11% up). It is also noteworthy that those who make the greatest use of multi mobility are people aged 26 to 35 (65%), followed by the 18 to 25s (58%) and those aged 36 to 45 (54%).

Although many members of the public are still reluctant to introduce new commuting options into their daily travels, this increase is mainly attributed to the ease and comfort that these options provide for getting around the city (41% as opposed to 23% in 2023). Other popular reasons given are the speed (35%) and ease of parking in the city centre (34% compared to 13% in 2023).

In terms of the frequency of use with these modes of travel, 44% of the population use this type of travel several times a month for journeys mostly related to leisure (57%, and mainly used by those aged 26 to 35 (67%)), and work (23%, mostly used by 18 to 25-year-olds (36%)).

Currently one of the great challenges is to achieve fast and efficient mobility and, for this reason, shared mobility is proving the most popular within this new framework for future travel. When looking at all the modes of transport that make up multi mobility, the services that best meet the needs of the Spanish population are, in first place and as per 2023, car-sharing (27%), followed by car rentals (22%) and electric scooters (21% compared to 11% in 2023).

In Spain there are 9,036,129 vehicles with no emissions badge (29.4% of the total). To this should be added the 9,141,364 vehicles that fall into category B, 29.8% of the total.

As a result, the oldest and most polluting vehicles account for 59.2% of total vehicles on the road. On the positive side, the number of vehicles on the road without a label fell by 2% in 2023 compared to 2022 and those with a B label fell by 0.9%.

ECO and zero-emission vehicles have increased their presence, but together they account for only 5.7% of the total. The total of ECO-labelled vehicles rose to 1,386,925, growing by 31% with a share of 4.5%, the highest increase in all labels at 1%. Zero-emission vehicles reached a figure of 364,765. They are the fastest growing with a 50.9% increase. However, they only account for 1.2% of the total with a 0.4% gain in market share in the last year.

In terms of fuel sources, vehicles in Spain continue to be diesel-centric. While the percentage fell slightly by 1.3% in 2023, diesel still dominates at 60.3% of the total (18,525,837 vehicles). In turn, petrol-driven vehicles account for 10,439,449, decreasing their share by only 0.1% compared to 2022 - still 34% of the total. In summary, diesel and petrol vehicles in circulation account for 94.3% of all vehicles on the road, more than 29 million.