China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 30
Railroads still carry a plurality of intercity passenger travel and the proliferation of high-speed
rail lines over the past decade has maintained the high demand for rail travel over air travel. In
2018, railroads accounted for more than 40% of total passenger travel (in billion passengerkilometers), up from an all-time low of 29.4% in 2012. Even so, as incomes have grown and the
domestic air networks expanded, passenger travel by air increased sharply, accounting for 31%
of total passenger-kilometers travelled in 2018.
The extensive network of highways built in the last 20 years has also led to increased demand
for road travel and in 2018 highway passenger kilometers represented 27% of total passenger
kilometers traveled (intercity only). Ownership of passenger vehicles (i.e. all non-freight
vehicles) grew 20% per year between 2005 and 2018, reaching 41 units per 100 urban
households from virtually none just 20 years ago – and still far below the 190 units per 100
households in the U.S. (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2017) and 106 units per household
in Japan (Miller 2017). Rural ownership of passenger vehicles began to increase in the last five
to eight years, reaching over 22% penetration in 2018.
Figure 1-12. Freight Movements and Passenger Travel by Mode (1950-2018)
Source: NBS, various years (a).
Notes: 1) Data on highway transport for 1949-1978 include freight carried by transportation work units only.
Subsequent data also include freight carried by vehicles belonging to other types of work units, e.g., industrial and
agricultural. Data for 1984 and later years further include freight carried by private motor vehicles. 2) Inland
waterway shipping data are not broken out after 1993, but are derived from Total and Ocean data. 3) Statistical
boundaries of freight and passenger transport by highway and waterway were adjusted in 2008. 4) 2013 freight
movement data and passenger travel data were from the 2013 Special Economic and Statistical Investigation of
Transport Sector, and statistical boundaries were adjusted. 5) Water freight transport includes inland waterway
transport and international ocean transport. 6) Data presented in charts are only for intercity freight and
passenger transport, not intracity transport.
China’s electric vehicle market began to grow in 2011, gained momentum in 2014, and was
further boosted in 2015 with the promulgation of Made in China 2025, the government’s 10year plan to upgrade certain manufacturing sectors including electric vehicles (see Chapter 2).
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