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Car ownership is at an all-time high in the UK but is that trend about to change? Leon Poultney takes a look...
- The history of how the UK became a multi-car society
- How many vehicles are registered on UK roads?
- Could technology see a move away from ownership?
Evelyn Ellis in his Panhard-Levassour in 1895.
The past
Ever since the UK's maiden voyage aboard a 'petroleum motor carriage' was taken in 1895 by Evelyn Ellis, we’ve been a nation obsessed with the automobile. Fast forward to 1934, and close to 2.5 million motorised vehicles were using Britain's roads, according to Juliet Gardiner, author of The Thirties: An Intimate History.
According to figures from The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, car ownership hovered around 19 million in 1971, but exploded to over 31 million in 2007.
The one-car household had been practically the norm since the early 1960s, but the number of multi-car families, with access to two or more cars, has risen dramatically since that date. In fact, by the mid-1990s, there were more families in the UK with at least two cars than there were with no car at all.
This could be due to a number of reasons, like the fact cars have become more reliable, lasting longer, and the amount of scrappage has dipped.
A family road trip before multi-car households became common.
The present
Research by Nimble and Fins shows that by the end of 2022, the average English household had 1.22 cars, with over 33 million licenced cars in the UK.
As the number of households with more than one car increased, we saw the introduction of multi-car insurance, as car owners wanted to protect more than one vehicle at a time.
We’ve also seen the Government bring in multiple policies to manage the number of cars on the road. In London, vehicles are charged £15 a day for driving in areas of congestion during peak times. However, electric vehicles emitting zero emissions are currently exempt from this charge until 2025.
But even though the car’s still the most popular form of transport, there’s been a decrease in young people holding a driving license. 'Many motoring manufacturers are worried young people just aren't as enthusiastic about cars as they were in previous decades,' says Jack Evans (@jackrober), features editor at automotive content providers Blackball Media.
'Improvements in technology, the ease of on-demand taxi services like Uber and the cost of motoring for young people, including driving lesson fees, car tax and car insurance, have likely contributed to the decline in 17 to 21 year-olds getting behind the wheel,' he adds.
Also, according to GOV.UK, the waiting list for driving tests in 2024 is still very high, meaning young drivers are struggling to take and pass their tests. This problem was largely caused by the backlog created during Covid when test centres had to close or limit their operations for long periods.
Electric cars have been around for a while!
The future
Could we one day see the sort of car-free future that World Car Free Day attempts to visualise on 22 September every year?
'We are finding that more people are using public transport in our cities,' says Richard De Cani, UKMEA Planning Leader at Arup, a global design and engineering firm which’ve been involved with in high-profile projects like High Speed 2 and Crossrail. 'They are using their cars less, so we have to look at new ways of keeping them moving.'
City planners, technology companies and automotive manufacturers are busy reacting to the current trends by developing, producing and implementing new forms of public transport.
Car sharing schemes, such as ZipCar and Drive Now, are already proving popular in UK cities, where car ownership is less practical due to a lack of parking spaces.
Electric car sales have soared in the UK in recent years, as the government announced its plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. In fact, there’s now over 1,300 zero-emission buses running through the streets of London. Electric vehicles are becoming important for the future of transportation and potentially leading to big changes in how cars work and look.
Luke Miles, Founder and Director at New Territory, a company which assisted with future transport projects, claims our concept of ownership will change completely in the future.
He believes as we begin to use automated on-demand transport, we’ll look towards experiences rather than physical things.
'In the future, spaces will be less singular and rigid in their design,' he says. 'It means that the future transport environment will be built around the notion of inherent flexibility – conforming to you rather than forcing you to conform to it.'
Technology such as automated vehicles, could see an explosion in Uber-style taxi services which can travel further for less.
All of the above could change, but current trends suggest car ownership is slowing. Have we fallen out of love with the car? Only time will tell.
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