Private cars in China up 28% in 2008

It wasn't so long ago that we wrote about China's 168 million motor vehicles (if you count everything), or about how taxes went up on big vehicles (though fuel is heavily subsidized, encouraging waste).China's not a country to stand still, even in this economy. 2008 saw a 28% increase in private cars.

Via National Bureau of Statistics of China, Green Car Congress the source is Treehugger from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (not always the most reliable source, especially for GDP numbers):

The total number of cars for civilian use stood at 24.38 million, up by 24.5%, of which private-owned cars numbered 19.47 million, up by 28.0%.

Passenger traffic in kilometers for all kinds of transportation (rail, highways, waterways, aviation) is up 8.2%. Aviation is up 3.3%, which highways saw the biggest increase at 9.8% and waterways the only decrease: -3.3%.

Freight traffic only increased by 3.8% in kilometers, but by 9.4% in tons. The fastest growing means of transportation (by tons) for freight at highways and pipelines, while rail has the relatively low rate of 4.7%.

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