Motor Vehicle Census, Australia

This release has ceased

Statistics relating to vehicles which were registered on 31st January 2021 with a motor vehicle registration authority

Reference period

31 Jan 2021

Released

30/06/2021

Next release Ceased

Key statistics

There were 20.1 million registered motor vehicles as at 31 January 2021.
The national fleet increased by 1.7% from 2020 to 2021.
Toyota topped the list of passenger vehicles for the 16th consecutive year with 3.0 million registrations.
Diesel vehicles increased to 26.4% of the national fleet, up from 20.9% in 2016.

Final release

This is the final release of the ABS Motor Vehicle Census, Australia. The Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) have been working with Austroads to establish a replacement product using data from the National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System (NEVDIS). For further information see, Motor Vehicle Census 2022.

States and territories

An increase in registrations was reported in all states and territories.
Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory each reported the largest increase from the previous year (2.3%).
In contrast, Victoria's fleet grew the least by 0.7%.

Change in motor vehicle registrations from 2020 - 2021, by state and territory
	Percentage change 2020 to 2021 (%)
NSW	2.0
Vic.	0.7
Qld	2.3
SA	2.3
WA	1.6
Tas.	2.0
NT	1.4
ACT	2.3

Change in motor vehicle registrations from 2020 - 2021, by state and territory

["","Percentage change 2020 to 2021"]

[["NSW","Vic.","Qld","SA","WA","Tas.","NT","ACT"],[[2],[0.69999999999999996],[2.2999999999999998],[2.2999999999999998],[1.6000000000000001],[2],[1.3999999999999999],[2.2999999999999998]]]

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New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland accounted for 76% of the national fleet.
New South Wales had the highest number of registrations with 5.9 million.
The Northern Territory had the lowest number of registrations with 163 thousand.

Motor vehicle registrations by state and territory, 2021
	State and territory
NSW	5,892,206
Vic.	5,157,172
Qld	4,303,713
SA	1,477,899
WA	2,314,712
Tas.	516,451
NT	162,641
ACT	318,148

Motor vehicle registrations by state and territory, 2021

["","State and territory"]

[["NSW","Vic.","Qld","SA","WA","Tas.","NT","ACT"],[[5892206],[5157172],[4303713],[1477899],[2314712],[516451],[162641],[318148]]]

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Fuel type

Petrol powered vehicles decreased by 1.0 percentage point to 71.7% of the national fleet.
Diesel powered vehicles increased by 0.8 percentage points to 26.4% of all registered vehicles.

Proportion of vehicles by fuel type, 2021
	Fuel type (%)
Petrol leaded	1.5
Petrol unleaded	70.2
Total petrol	71.7
Diesel	26.4
Other	1.8

Proportion of vehicles by fuel type, 2021

["","Fuel type"]

[["Petrol leaded","Petrol unleaded","Total petrol","Diesel","Other"],[[1.5],[70.200000000000003],[71.700000000000003],[26.399999999999999],[1.8]]]

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There were 23 thousand electric vehicle registrations.
Electric vehicle registrations increased by 62.3% from the previous year.

Electric vehicle registrations from 2020 - 2021, by vehicle type
Vehicle type	2020	2021
Passenger vehicles	12,651	20,095
Motorcycles	1,308	2,706
Other (a)	294	327

Electric vehicle registrations from 2020 - 2021, by vehicle type

["Vehicle type","2020","2021"]

[["Passenger vehicles","Motorcycles","Other (a)"],[[12651],[1308],[294]],[[20095],[2706],[327]]]

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Other includes articulated trucks, buses, campervans, heavy rigid trucks, light commercial vehicles, light rigid trucks and non-freight carrying trucks.

Vehicle type

Light rigid trucks continued to have the largest growth rate in registrations, increasing 6.0%, followed by articulated trucks with 4.6%.
Passenger vehicle registrations increased by 1.2% however, their share of the fleet fell 0.4 percentage points to 73.7%.
In contrast, light commercial vehicle registrations increased by 3.3%, rising to 17.5% of the registered fleet.

Change in motor vehicle registrations from 2020 - 2021, by vehicle type
	Percentage change 2020 to 2021 (%)
Passenger vehicles	1.2
Campervans	2.9
Light commercial vehicles	3.3
Light rigid trucks	6.0
Heavy rigid trucks	1.7
Articulated trucks	4.6
Non-freight carrying vehicles	2.2
Buses	-3.4
Motorcycles	3.7

Change in motor vehicle registrations from 2020 - 2021, by vehicle type

["","Percentage change 2020 to 2021"]

[["Passenger vehicles","Campervans","Light commercial vehicles","Light rigid trucks","Heavy rigid trucks","Articulated trucks","Non-freight carrying vehicles","Buses","Motorcycles"],[[1.2],[2.8999999999999999],[3.2999999999999998],[6],[1.7],[4.5999999999999996],[2.2000000000000002],[-3.3999999999999999],[3.7000000000000002]]]

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Average age

Average age of vehicles across Australia increased to 10.6 years.
Tasmanian vehicles were the the oldest at 13.3 years.
The Australian Capital Territory had the youngest fleet with an average age of 9.5 years.

Data downloads