The number of cars on German roads showed a slight increase at the beginning of this year, new data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), based on figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), has found.
According to the data, there were 590 cars for every 1,000 German citizens at the start of 2025, compared to 588 in 2024 and 587 in 2023.
As of 1 January 2025, the total number of registered passenger cars in Germany totalled 49.3 million, up from 49.1 million a year earlier.
On a regional basis, Saarland reported the highest car density with 646 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Rhineland-Palatinate at 641 and Bavaria at 635. At the other end of the scale, the capital, Berlin, reported 334 cars per 1,000 inhabitants – given the city’s extensive public transport network.
Other cities the boast a low car density per 1,000 inhabitants included Bremen (427) and Hamburg (435).
Electric vehicles
Despite an increase in the number of registered passenger cars year-on-year, the percentage of electric cars on German roads remains low, but growing.
Fully-electric vehicles accounted for 1.65 million cars, or 3.3% of the total German fleet, compared to 2.9% last year.
However, at the same time, fully-electric cars represent a larger share of new car registrations – around 250,000 such vehicles were registered, or 17.7% of all new registrations.
Road transport emissions
Elsewhere, Destatis‘ findings indicate that emissions from road transport continue to decrease, by 13.8% between 2019 and 2023. Some 154.7 million tons of CO₂ were emitted in 2023, of which 88.9 million tonnes came from private households. This equated to just under 1.1 tonnes of CO₂ per person.
Destatis’ car density figures are calculated by comparing the number of registered passenger cars at the start of the year (1 January) with population data as of 31 December of the previous year. Read more here.
