SUMMARY COMMENTARY


NUMBER OF VEHICLES

There were an estimated 17.7 million vehicles registered in Australia in the 12 months ended 31 October 2014.

In 2014, passenger vehicles made up 75.9% of all registered vehicles. Freight vehicles (Articulated trucks, Rigid trucks and Light commercial vehicles) accounted for 19.1% of all registered vehicles with the remaining 5.0% comprising buses, motor cycles and non-freight carrying trucks. Of the freight vehicles, 83.4% were light commercial vehicles, 13.8% were rigid trucks and 2.8% were articulated trucks.

The 17.7 million vehicles represented an increase of approximately 1.1 million vehicles (6.5%) since the last SMVU which was conducted for the 12 months ended 30 June 2012.


KILOMETRES TRAVELLED

Motor vehicles registered in Australia travelled an estimated 244,369 million kilometres in the 12 months ended 31 October 2014.

The state/territory proportion of total kilometres travelled closely relates to the proportion of registered vehicles in each state/territory. New South Wales had the largest share of total kilometres travelled (29.5%) and the largest proportion of registered vehicles.

Passenger vehicles accounted for 72.4% of the total kilometres travelled in the 12 months ended 31 October 2014.

Personal and other use accounted for 56.6% of the total kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles in Australia in 2014. Business use (18.0%) and travel to and from work (25.4%) accounted for the remaining kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles.

Motor vehicles registered in Australia travelled an average of 13,800 kilometres per vehicle in the 12 months ended 31 October 2014. Vehicles registered in Victoria travelled the highest average kilometres (14,500 kilometres). For 2014, New South Wales (14,100) and Queensland (13,800) were also estimated to be above the national average, while vehicles registered in Tasmania travelled the lowest average kilometres (11,900).

TONNE-KILOMETRES

In the 12 months ended 31 October 2014, freight vehicles travelled an estimated 203,295 million tonne-kilometres in Australia. Articulated trucks accounted for 79.0% (160,584 million) of total tonne-kilometres travelled followed by rigid trucks with 17.2% (35,035 million) and light commercial vehicles with 3.8% (7,676 million). Articulated trucks with a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) of over 40 tonnes accounted for 95.3% (153,109 million) of the total tonne-kilometres travelled by articulated trucks.

In 2014, articulated trucks travelled an average of 1.8 million tonne-kilometres. In comparison, rigid trucks and light commercial vehicles travelled an average of 87,700 and 4,900 tonne-kilometres, respectively.

In 2014, freight vehicles registered in Victoria travelled the most tonne-kilometres (53,667 million), followed by Queensland (47,018 million), New South Wales (39,797) and Western Australia (37,866).

The largest change in tonne-kilometres travelled by freight vehicles over the period of the 12 months ended 31 October 2010 to the 12 months ended 31 October 2014 was for freight vehicles registered in Western Australia with an increase of 7,787 million (25.9%).

Over the period 2010 to 2014, tonne-kilometres travelled by freight vehicles registered in the Northern Territory had the highest percentage increase of 76.7% (1,553 million). This was the largest percentage increase for any state or territory.


FUEL CONSUMPTION

In the 12 months ended 31 October 2014, registered motor vehicles in Australia consumed an estimated 32,402 million litres of fuel. Of the total fuel consumed by motor vehicles in 2014, 54.0% was petrol and 40.5% was diesel.

Passenger vehicles consumed 18,893 million litres of fuel in 2014, of which 80.6% (15,234 million litres) was petrol.

Light commercial vehicles consumed a total of 5,525 million litres of fuel. Diesel accounted for 55.7% (3,080 million litres) and petrol accounted for 37.7% (2,084 million litres).

A total of 7,116 million litres of fuel was consumed by rigid and articulated trucks. Diesel was the overwhelmingly predominant fuel type (99.5%) consumed by trucks.

The average rate of fuel consumption for all motor vehicles in 2014 was 13.3 litres per 100 kilometres. Of all vehicle types, articulated trucks had the highest average fuel consumption at 56.9 litres per 100 kilometres. The average rate of fuel consumption for passenger vehicles was 10.7 litres per 100 kilometres.

NOTES


ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents estimates from the 2014 Survey of Motor Vehicle Use (SMVU). It contains statistics on passenger vehicle, motor cycle, truck and bus use for characteristics such as kilometres travelled, tonne-kilometres and fuel consumption.

The data were collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) over the period 1 November 2013 to 31 October 2014.

Previously the SMVU releases contained summary data tables within the main publication (as a .pdf document) as well as additional more detailed tables in a separate data cube. Both were released under catalogue number 9208.0. For this and future publications, all data tables have been consolidated into the data cube, released under catalogue number (cat. no. 9208.0).


COMPARISONS WITH PREVIOUS SURVEY RESULTS

Care should be taken when comparing data over time as movements may be subject to high sampling error. As a result the movements may not be statistically significant. See Explanatory Notes paragraph 16.

Additional information about the reliability, level and movement of the estimates is provided in the Technical Note.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.