China’s automobile population reaches 250 million units by June 2019

China has had 340 million motor vehicles as of the end of June 2019, according to China's the Ministry of Public Security.

By the end of June 2019, China's automobile population reached 250 million units, accounting for 74.58% of total motor vehicle volume. Of that, 198 million units are from private cars.

For the first half of 2019, the number of newly-registered vehicles (excluding motorcycles) aggregated 12.42 million, compared with 13.81 million units for the same period in 2018, said the ministry's traffic management bureau.

There are 66 cities in China whose respective automobile population has exceeded 1 million units, 8 cities more than that of a year ago.

The number of city, which has had over 2 million vehicles (excluding motorcycles) , amounted to 29 nationwide. Besides, a total of 11 cities (Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Suzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Wuhan, Dongguan, Tianjin) saw their automobile population surpass 3 million.

Automobile population in Beijing and Chengdu has topped 5 million units.

The number of new energy cars has totaled 3.44 million units, among which 2.81 million units are BEVs.

There were 830 thousand new energy cars registered in the first half of the year. Compared with the same period a year earlier, the national new energy car population has surged by 72.85%, the bureau said.

With the increase of motor vehicles, the number of licensed drivers also grew. As of the end of June, China has had 422 million motor vehicle drivers, 25.76 million people more than that of the previous year. Besides, there were 14.08 million drivers newly registered during the first two quarters of 2019.