This overview of the car fleet in Grand Paris in 2022 shows recent trends by type of vehicle and provides a review of alternatives to individual combustion-powered cars.
The year 2022 confirmed the trend towards the demotorisation of households in the Grand Paris Metropolis. Indeed, in 2022 the decline in the number of registered vehicles, which began in 2018, reached a rate of 1,21%, that is 35,000 light vehicles (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) in Grand Paris Metropolis. This drop was not equally distributed through the metropolitan territory: it was greater in Paris and Paris Ouest la Défense and less marked in areas with poor public transport services.
Although the number of light vehicles in the Metropolis has slightly decreased, this is not the case for heavy goods vehicles or public transport, where the number of licensed vehicles increased respectively 0,3% and 19% between 2021 and 2022. This can be explained by the growing need for logistics on the one hand and the significant number of new buses and coaches registered on the other.
In addition to this, the eco-friendly characteristics of the fleet have improved: the number of clean vehicles in the Metropolis increased by 53% between 2021 and 2022. In the context of gradually establishing a low carbon emission mobility zone (ZFE-m) within the perimeter of the A86 motorway, the renewal of the existing vehicle fleet has at last begun to contribute to improving the air quality.
This is also helped by fewer car journeys being made and other modes of transport becoming popular (public transport, eco-friendly, sustainable mobility) as well as new ways of travelling by car (ride-sharing, car-pooling,). Also, the new energy sources, particularly electricity, are an increasingly credible alternative to combustion-powered vehicles. Finally, the changes in the way work is organised, especially teleworking, raise the question of home-workplace journeys and consequently the role of cars.
