Number of registered vehicles exceeds country’s population, says minister

THE number of registered vehicles in the country continues to exceed the country’s human population, Transport Minister Anthony Loke told Dewan Negara. 

There were more than 36.3 million registered vehicles in the country as of October, while the population stood at 32.4 million. 

Of these, he said, cars comprised the highest number of registered vehicles at 17,244,978, followed by motorcycles at 16,773,112, and goods transport vehicles (1,429,403). 

He also said there were a total of 84,745 taxis, 64,021 buses, and 30,318 rental cars in the country, while 736,410 others did not fit into any of the categories mentioned. 

“Of the total, 23,822,322 vehicles still have active road tax, while 12,540,644 others are inactive without any road tax,” added Loke. 

He stressed that the Transport Ministry is taking steps to encourage the use of public transport, and in a few years the rail network in the Klang Valley will be further widened. 

The ministry is also carrying out strategic partnerships with local authorities and other stakeholders to facilitate the use of micro-mobility vehicles, he added. 

The Vibes had previously reported that sales of new motor vehicles or total industry volume (TIV) hit an all-time high last year. 

The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) had said early this year that for the first time the annual TIV exceeded the 700,000-unit mark and attributed this to increased overall demand. 

It said companies had started to invest in anticipation of an economic rebound after the slowdown caused by the pandemic. 

Another factor that contributed to the historic sales was suppressed demand for new vehicles during the first half of 2022. The low base effect or lower sales in the first half of 2021 due to Covid-19 lockdowns also spurred a higher level of buying the following year. 

The MAA also said the all-time high TIV can also be attributed to the authorities’ decision to allow consumers with confirmed bookings (without sales and service tax) to register their vehicles by the end of March this year.  

In June 2022, Professor Dr Kulanthayan K.C. Mani, a road safety expert at Universiti Putra Malaysia, reportedly said the number of vehicles in the country had overtaken the human population with an increase of at least a million vehicles annually since 2019. 

In 2021, there were 33.3 million registered vehicles nationwide versus the human population, which stood at 32.6 million, he noted. 

He had told the New Straits Times that his observation on the booming vehicle registration over the past few years until 2021 led him to believe that it was the prime contributor to congestion in most parts of the country. – The Vibes, December 7, 2023.