global personal transportation

In the personal vehicles sector, energy use grew on average at 2 percent annually over the last 25 years. While the OECD OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Member Countries (30) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States accounts for close to 80 percent of this energy demand today, the rate of growth in the non-OECD nations since 1980 has been approximately four times faster.

One of the key drivers of this demand is the number of light duty vehicles around the world. As history demonstrates, there is a close correlation between vehicle ownership and levels of personal income.

Shown on the chart is data from 1990-2005 that illustrates the relationship between income (as GDP per capita) and the number of light duty vehicles (cars, SUVs, light pickup trucks) per 1000 people. Each dot is a specific year for a specific country; China, South Korea and the U.S. are highlighted.

As the non-OECD countries (shown in blue) move up the economic ladder, so will vehicle ownership in these nations. While countries like China are still low on the curve, their potential for growth is tremendous.

At the same time, in many OECD countries, vehicle penetration is already quite high. Some nations are in fact reaching saturation levels.