US Ranks 25th in Cars Per Capita: Study

Luke Vandezande
by Luke Vandezande

A new study from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reveals that the United States is actually far behind a long list of other countries when it comes to cars per person.

Believe it or not, the U.S. has fewer cars per capita than Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and 16 other countries. Despite that, Americans also use more energy than any other country — roughly twice as much as Europeans.

But this isn’t an issue falling on deaf industry ears. Both the lack of car buying and the voracious American energy appetite are coming fast to the forefront. Fuel efficient, affordable cars like the Chevrolet Spark are meant to offer alternatives to the thirsty vehicles Americans generally prefer.

Also, Toyota is actively exploring ways to engage new car buyers by offering more technology, better fuel economy and more overall affordability all in one package.

In either case, the graph above shows that there’s a long way to go before Americans can climb in the rankings.

Luke Vandezande
Luke Vandezande

Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.

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