The vehicle fleet in Belgium in 2018

On 1st August 2018, there were 5,853,782 passenger cars in Belgium, according to the new figures of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office. This is an increase of 1.2 % compared to 2017. The strongest growth was recorded for gasoline-electric hybrid passenger cars and pure electric passenger cars. The number of gasoline-electric hybrid cars has increased by +39 % compared to last year (81,107), and the number of electric cars has risen by +41.1 % (9,244 cars).

Gasoline vs diesel

The number of cars with a gasoline motor has increased by 7.9 % compared to last year, while diesel cars continue to fall sharply (-4.4 %, compared to -2.5 % in 2017). However, the diesel cars still account for the largest share of the total number of passenger cars: 3,193,658 diesel cars compared to 2,518,942 gasoline cars. Compared to 2014, the number of diesel cars has decreased by about 260,000 units, while the number of gasoline cars has increased by 490,000.

For the gasoline motors, the increase of small cylinders is the most pronounced: +20.5 % for 0 to 899 cc and +17.4 % for 900 to 1,099 cc. The category 1,300 to 1,599 cc remains the most widespread on our roads, despite everything.

Diesel cars have decreased in various degrees in almost all categories. The category 1,300 to 1,599 cc  remains the most important category in the diesel cars.

Electric vehicles

The number of electric passenger cars also continues to grow strongly, by +41.1 %. There are currently 9,244 electric passenger cars in Belgium. This is a sharp increase compared to the 1,792 electric passengers cars in 2014. When we take all types of vehicles into account (a.o. mopeds, buses, delivery vans), electric vehicles go beyond the 10,000 mark, with 13,514 electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles account for only 0.2 % of the total vehicle fleet of 7,533,172 vehicles. Besides the passenger cars, there are also in Belgium 16,125 buses and coaches, 856,096 vehicles for the transport of goods, 50,230 tractors, 192,187 agricultural tractors, 74,257 specialized vehicles and 490,495 motorcycles.

Hybrid vehicles

The number of hybrid passenger cars keeps growing, especially in the gasoline-electric category, with an increase of 39 % compared to 2017. An increase of 9.8 % was recorded for the diesel-electric hybrid type. In total, the Belgian passenger car fleet contains 81,107 gasoline-electric hybrid cars and 5,905 diesel-electric cars. The gasoline-electric hybrid cars account for 1.39 % of the total car fleet. In four years, their number has increased fourfold, from 21,774 in 2014 to 81,107 in 2018.