In Poland, year-on-year registrations of new cars continue to increase, as Poles return to pre-pandemic realities, albeit with new preferences. The latest report from the Association of Car Dealers not only presents how the dynamics of initial registration of new passenger, delivery and heavy-duty vehicles have changed over the last 12 months, but also reveals the types of drives most frequently chosen by Poles.
The report showing how many new cars were registered in Poland in 2023 was prepared by the Association of Car Dealers based on information provided by the Polish Automotive Industry Association, with the data itself coming from the CEP database.
The year 2023 was the first in recent years when no monthly decreases in registrations of passenger cars on a “year-on-year” scale were recorded. This means that each of the last 12 months fared better in terms of the number of new registered cars than its equivalent in 2022. In 2023, 475,032 new passenger cars were registered in Poland, averaging just under 40,000 registrations per month. This is more than 13% better than the previous year.
In Poland, company registrations, making up over 70% of all first passenger car registrations in the country, prevail. This means that less than 30% of new cars are registered by private individuals. Notably, in 2023, 64,522 delivery vehicles up to 3.5 tons were registered, 3.7% more than the previous year. Together with passenger cars, this gives an impressive total of 539,554 registrations of all new vehicles up to 3.5 tons.
In other categories, the “year-on-year” results are mostly positive too. There were a staggering 36.3% more heavy-duty vehicles between 3.5 and 16 tons registered than in 2022, totaling 3,694 units. Only heavy-duty vehicles over 16 tons registered slightly less than in 2022, but the figure of 31,778 trucks is only 1.2% lower than the previous year.
The year 2023 proved to be a turning point in terms of the type of drive preferred in Poland. The previous dominance of petrol cars was effectively broken in August. Since then, low-emission vehicles – specifically HEV and MHEV hybrids – have been the most sought-after, with 17,453 units registered in December alone. This is more than 1,500 more vehicles than with pure petrol drives in a single month. Other types of drives, such as diesel, LPG, battery vehicles and plug-in hybrids, maintained their popularity at a relatively stable level throughout the year.
“Breaking the magical barrier of half a million registrations of vehicles up to 3.5 tons is very important for all of us. It means that we are returning to the pre-2020 results when the market was still healthy. Not only for dealers, but the entire automotive industry, this year’s rise in the popularity of so-called mild hybrids is very interesting. Recent months show it to be the most popular type of drive chosen. If we sum up the results of mild hybrids, plug-ins and electric cars, it may turn out that soon zero and low-emission vehicles will make up over 50% of the entire market,” commented Paweł Tuzinek, chairman of the Association of Car Dealers.
