This release provides statistics relating to the number of vehicles registered for road use in Australia on 31st January 2023. The statistics encompass all vehicles that were registered with an Australian state or territory motor vehicle registry for unrestricted use on public roads, and reported by jurisdictions to the National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System (NEVDIS).  This is the second annual release of Road Vehicles Australia, which replaces the ABS Motor Vehicle Census, discontinued in 2021. More statistics are available on the BITRE website and data.gov.au. 

This release provides statistics relating to the number of vehicles registered for road use in Australia on 31st January 2022. The statistics encompass all vehicles that were registered with an Australian state or territory motor vehicle registry for unrestricted use on public roads, and reported by jurisdictions to the National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System (NEVDIS).  This is the first annual release of Road Vehicles Australia, which replaces the ABS Motor Vehicle Census, discontinued in 2021. More statistics are available on the BITRE website and data.gov.au. 

This report uses an established modelling framework for forecasting the uptake of technologies that assist drivers and full vehicle automation in Australian light vehicles. Taking uncertainties into consideration, the report provides sensitivity analysis, based on several assumptions, to estimate the possible uptake of sales and fleet penetration till 2070. BITRE will maintain a watch on automated vehicles (AVs) as they are deployed and use the modelling framework to update its estimates when new information to inform forecasts becomes available.

• Forecasting uptake of driver assistance technologies in Australia [PDF: 7029 KB]

This Information Sheet investigates how the characteristics of Australia’s light vehicle fleet vary across different types of regions, including States/Territories, major cities, city sectors, region types, and small areas. Vehicle characteristics considered include fuel type, average age, cylinders and tare weight. Specific types of vehicles, such as electric vehicles, sports utility vehicles and utilities are also examined. The study also identifies recent changes in the composition of Australia’s light vehicle fleet.

• light-vehicles-info-sheet-108.pdf
  (3.9 MB)

This Information Sheet presents data on Australian households' expenditure patterns, based on the ABS Household Expenditure Survey (HES) for 2015–16. It updates BITRE Information Sheet 86 Spending by Australian households on owning and operating vehicles (BITRE 2017a), which relied on 2009–10 HES data. It details the composition of household expenditure on owning and operating vehicles and explores variation in the incidence of these costs across different types of households, such as capital city and regional households, and high income and low income households. This updated analysis also investigates changes in vehicle-related spending since 2009–10, with the aim of identifying any significant changes that have occurred for particular types of regions or particular demographic groups.

• Spending by Australian households on owning and operating vehicles in 2015–16
  
  InfoSheet95.pdf
  (1.87 MB)

In this research, several elements of spending are examined, including the composition of that expenditure, the contribution of taxes and government charges, how the expenditure varies by broad region type and by key demographic characteristics, as well as the characteristics of those households with the greatest expenditure on owning and operating vehicles.

• Spending by Australian households on owning and operating vehicles
  
  is_086.pdf
  (1.72 MB)

This Information Sheet presents estimates of urban passenger fares in major Australian cities from 1952-53 to 2015-16. A taxi fare index is available separately from 1996-97 to 2015-16. The general trend has been for rising real urban passenger fares, except during the period 1973-74 to 1979-80, when real fares fell as nominal fare levels failed to keep up with higher inflation rates. Rises in both real urban passenger fares and real taxi fares slowed after 2000-01.

• Urban Passenger fares
  
  is_088.pdf
  (632.92 KB)

Paper prepared for the ANZSOG Infrastructure Research Workshop, Canberra, 2015. Author: Mark Harvey

• Shifting the Transport Infrastructure Debate

This information sheet presents an estimate of the number of drivers licences in Australia from 1922 to 2016. Also included are estimates of drivers licences in each Australian State and Territory from 1922 to 2016. Long-term trends in licences per person, both Australia-wide and in each State/Territory, are shown to be in the form of saturating logistic curves. These are modelled, first for Australian in aggregate, and then for each State/Territory.

• Drivers Licences in Australia
  
  is_084.pdf
  (696.62 KB)
• State Licences 2018
  
  state_licences_2018.xlsx
  (643.65 KB)

This information sheet presents estimates of air, rail and bus passenger fares between major Australian cities from 1960 to 2016. Data for nine intercity routes are provided in this analysis. Real dollar fare values for the medium-distance routes have declined across all modes since 1960 but the trends have not been similar and fare trends have often been disrupted.

• Intercity Passenger fares
  
  is_085.pdf
  (691.75 KB)