Road transport accounted for 22.2% of Germany‘s energy consumption and 21.4% of its total carbon dioxide emissions in 2024, new data from the federal statistics office (Destatis) has revealed.
According to Destatis, energy consumption in road transport totalled approximately 2,134 petajoules in 2024, remaining broadly unchanged from levels recorded since 2021, but still 11.0% below the pre-pandemic peak of 2,399 petajoules in 2019
Around three fifths (58%) of the energy consumption from road transport was attributable to private households, with the remainder (42%) attributable to industry.
For private households, road transport represented 35.3% of total energy consumption, with the remainder primarily used for residential purposes such as heating. For businesses, road transport accounted for 14.7% of overall energy consumption.
Conventional fuels
Both households and businesses continued to rely on conventional fuels, the data showed. Diesel, including blended biodiesel, accounted for 60.8% of road transport energy consumption, equivalent to 1,297 petajoules. Petrol, including blended bioethanol, represented 37.2%, or 794 petajoules.
Electricity and gaseous fuels each accounted for 1.0% of road transport energy use, at 22 petajoules and 21 petajoules respectively.
Despite having a smaller overall share, electricity consumption increased by 32.0% compared with 2023 and has almost quadrupled since 2021, reflecting continued growth in electric vehicle use, Destatis noted.
Combined, biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas accounted for 5.5% of road transport energy consumption in 2024.
Emissions generation
Road transport generated 155 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions during the year. It also produced other air pollutants, including 834,710 tonnes of carbon monoxide, 315,500 tonnes of nitrogen oxides and 27,310 tonnes of particulate matter (PM10).
While carbon dioxide emissions from road transport have fallen by 6.0% since 2010, reductions in other pollutants have been more pronounced. Over the same period, carbon monoxide emissions declined by 38.2%, nitrogen oxide emissions fell by 61.2%, and particulate matter emissions decreased by 34.8%. Read more here.
