THE WORLD’S CARS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 160, 22 June 1935, Page 13

THE WORLD’S CARS

Total Nearly 30,000,000 COMPARISON OP COUNTRIES New Zealand, in 1934, had 136,354 motor cars, out of 28,983,028 in the whole world. The grand total of all motor vehicles in the world was 34,927,121. These are the latest available world figurgs. The total number of motor vehicles increased by one million and a-half in the 12 months from 1933. The figure fo r this Dominion seems small when compared with those for the world and some of the larger

countries, but many another country with a far greater population has fewer cars (for instance, Spain and Russia), while Australia and Now Zealand have more ears than either all Asia or all Africa, and almost as many as the two combined. North America and South- America contain 22,943,620 private curs—a truly staggering figure, which makes one realise the vast extent of the American automobile industry, states the “Motor.” By comparison, the European total, which ranks second with 4.749,387 private cars, is but a modest effort, for one has to bear in mind that several European countries, such as Holland, Switzerland, and some of the Scandinavian nations use chiefly American cars.

American products are popular in the rest of the continents, too, of which Australia and New Zealand come next with 618,354 private cars. Asia’s 345,914 total just beats the 330,756 of Africa.

Studying the continents in detail, we find that out of the total of 22,943,626 for the American continent, the United States accounts for ,°1,446,191 and Canada 953,503. The Argentine has 228,631, Brazil 95,000. Mexico 61,000, Uruguay 26,551, and Chile 22,875. Bermuda, at the other end of the scale, had 13 cars registered in 1934! Tn Europe Erance leads with 1,586,653 private cars, closely followed by Great Britain’s 1,389,024. Germany has 595,844, Italy 265,847, and Spain 122,500. The Faroe Islands contain 52 cars, while the smallest total for a mainland country is the 300 of Albania. Of the Scandinavian nations, Sweden is at the top with 98,200, followed by Denmark 88,289, Norway 34,595, and Finland 18,700. Holland, assisted by a well-developed road system, has 92,130, while other countries of note are Belgium 97,500, Austria 21,811, Czechoslovakia 79,137, Irish Free State 39,304, Poland 19,917, Portugal 24,500, Rumania 23,950, and Switzerland 67,500, the U.S.S.R. (including Asiatic Russia), with its meagre total of 33,500, obviously offers immense scope for road transport development. Another country which illustrates the dependence of a large “automobile population” on good roads is Yugoslavia, with a paltry 7361 cars spread throughout its considerable aroa.