Growing Average Age of Cars in Use in Hungary

The number of cars registered in Hungary is growing rapidly, but so is their average age. The latter has been rising steadily since the 2008 crisis, according to recent data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH).

As the business news site portfolio.hu points out, a turnaround would certainly require a rise in the living standards of Hungarians, but this is unlikely to happen in the current inflationary environment. It does not help that the extremely weak Hungarian currency, the forint has made new cars much more expensive, and it's not easy to get a young car from imports.

This can also be seen from the rise in average age of the vehicles in use in Hungary, which has been rising steadily since 2008 and reached 15.4 years by the end of 2022, whereas before the crisis, the average car in Hungary was barely older than 10 years.

At the end of 2022, there were 4.94 million cars in use in Hungary, a huge number considering that it has risen by 1 million in just over 8 years and that 20 years ago, there were only 2.6 million cars on the road in this country.

By far the largest number of cars in the country carries an Opel badge, practically one in eight. At the same time, the number of Opels has been falling in recent years and their age is rising sharply. The average Opel is now 17 years old.

Suzuki is in second place, with 10.3% of cars of this make, while Volkswagens make up 9.8% of all the cars used in Hungary.

The article also reveals that petrol cars are the majority with a share of almost two thirds, with diesels above 30%. Hybrids still make up a reasonable proportion, at 3.8%, but electric cars are below 1%.