How the world uses cars differently & why

Cars are a product of their environment.

They’re shaped as much by economical and geopolitical factors as by engineers and designers. Small cars sell well in Japan because the government encourages motorists to buy them, for example, while many Americans drive SUVs because they live in a relatively sparsely-populated country with challenging roads and cheap fuel. No two automotive landscapes on the planet are exactly alike, though some are closer than you might think.

Join us as we look at automotive trends from around the world.

Australia: Long lived the ute

For decades, Australia stood proud as the only nation manufacturing utes. Utes were car-based pickups that were more comfortable and more efficient than truck-based models but just as practical. They were offered as bare-bones work trucks, hot rods and any configuration in between. Ford and General Motors-owned Holden bitterly fought for domination of the segment after Chrysler left.

Utes were designed, built and sold exclusively in Australia. The segment closed when the Australian car manufacturing died in late 2017, the sector being killed by a fatal combination of changing market tastes and an appreciating currency that made imports cheap and exports expensive.

Note: Holden VF SS Redline pictured.

Bahrain: Decorative stripes on SUVs are still popular

Drive through Bahrain and you’ll undoubtedly notice a large number of the cars on the road are white. Automakers – Toyota, notably – and aftermarket companies still offer decorative stickers and stripes, a trend which fell out of vogue in other parts of the world during the 1980s. It’s a way to add color to a car or a truck without resorting to darker paint, which would make the cabin hotter during the summer.

Bahrain: Many traffic offenses can land you in jail

Bahrain also enforces some of the strictest driving rules on the planet. Drivers who get caught running a red light can spent up to six months in jail in addition to paying a fine, for example. Exceeding the speed limit by up to 30 percent is punishable by one to three months in jail; motorists going 30 percent faster than the speed limit face up to six months. In each case, a fine accompanies the prison sentence.

Brazil: Most cars run on ethanol

Brazil runs on sugar cane, not oil. Sugar cane-based ethanol began gaining popularity as a fuel for cars during the 1970s and, in 2018, gasoline sold in the country must contain at least 25 percent ethanol. Some cars burn pure ethanol, but flex-fuel vehicles capable of running on ethanol, gasoline or any blend of the two are common on Brazilian roads.

Note: Fiat Toro pictured.

China: Buyers don’t like the new car smell

Chinese buyers are more likely to walk away from a new car because it smells bad than because it returns poor fuel mileage, according to market analysts. Broadly speaking, they can’t stand the archetypal new car smell - much desired in most other places - and car companies are going to great lengths to eliminate it from the vehicles they sell on the local market.

Ford hires so-called smell testers that intervene during the development process to sniff every part of a car and point out parts whose aroma needs to be toned down. It's recently applied to patent the process.

Note: Ford Escort pictured.

China: The number one vehicle producer worldwide

China was the world’s largest automotive manufacturer in 2017. It made 29,015,434 cars and commercial vehicles; that’s more than the US, Japan and Germany combined. America finished the year in a distant second with 11,189,985 cars and trucks made while the UK’s 1,749,385 units produced ranked it in 13th place. Interestingly, the UK made more engines (about 2.7 million) than cars in 2017.

Note: Volkswagen Lamando pictured

France: Diesel remains immensely popular

61.6 percent of 39 million new and used cars registered in France in early 2017 ran on diesel, according to statistics provided by the government. That figure has dropped slightly since peaking at 62.4 percent in 2015, and it’s expected to fall again in 2018, but diesel is far from dead on French roads.

The French government has unveiled plans for a new tax on diesel in order to try and reduce the fuel's usage, but this has brought an angry response from French drivers recently, with protestors setting up roadblocks across France.

France: Motorists without a license can still drive

France is also one of several countries that allows motorists who don’t have a regular driver’s license (either because they lost it or because they never had one to begin with) to drive what the law calls a motorized quadricycle. To qualify for quadricycle status, a car must be equipped with an engine that makes no more than 8.15hp and it’s not allowed to exceed 27 mph. Manufacturers need to take a weight restriction into account, too. They often use standard-issue parts to save money during the development process, which occasionally leads to comically ill-proportioned designs.

Located south of Lyon in France, Aixam – one of the leading European manufacturers of light quadricycles – offers a wide line-up of models ranging from basic two-seaters to models with a more aggressive design. It even sells a pseudo SUV with a higher suspension, a GTI-badged variant and a delivery van. Less car doesn’t mean less money, though. Pricing starts at about €9000 (around $10,000/£8000), which places the most affordable Aixam almost on par with a Fiat Panda or a Suzuki Ignis.

Germany: Buyers (still) love wagons

Touring, Variant, Avant, Combi or something else. Whatever car companies call their station wagons, German motorists will buy them. Germany remains one of the last bastions of a body style whose market share is steadily declining in other parts of the globe as SUVs skyrocket in popularity. The segment has remained relatively stable, too.

Station wagons represented 21 percent of the new car market in Germany in 2002. That number fell slightly to 19 percent in 2017, according to JATO. In comparison, wagons made up 7.4 and 5.6 percent of the UK's new car market in 2002 and 2017, respectively.

Germany: Running out of fuel on the Autobahn is fineable

Keep your car’s fuel economy in mind if you want to explore the upper limit of its rev range on the unrestricted parts of Germany’s Autobahn. Running out of fuel is considered an avoidable human error and the police won’t hesitate to issue a fine if they see someone walking on the side of the highway with a jerrycan in hand. Fines typically run in the vicinity of €50 (about $57/£44).

Japan: Motorists who drive small get perks

Japan’s kei car regulations were instated in 1949 to solve an important problem: the lack of space. To qualify for kei car status, a vehicle needs to fall under strict size, weight and engine restrictions outlined by the national government. They’re consequently tiny and not very powerful, which is fine in a nation like Japan that has relatively low speed limits, but they take on many forms including vans, off-roaders, coupes and convertibles.

Note: Honda S660 pictured.

Middle East: Motorists love American cars

In terms of car-spotting, some parts of the Middle East feel like the parking lot of a Target in the Midwest US. Motorists have a penchant for American (and American-spec) vehicles, especially SUVs and large passenger cars. Hail an Uber in Manama, Bahrain, and your driver is more likely to show up in a Ford Flex than in a Focus.

Mongolia: Right- and left-hand drive vehicles share the road

Mongolians drive on the right side of the road, like Americans, yet nearly 48 percent of all vehicles registered in Mongolia (and almost 55 percent of cars in the capital, Ulaanbaatar) are right-hand drive. That’s because many vehicles are imported from right-hand drive markets like Japan and Hong Kong.

Right- and left-hand drive vehicles sharing the road is just as chaotic – and dangerous – as it sounds; 64.4 percent of traffic-related accidents in 2015 involved a right-hand drive car. In the 2017, the national government began looking at ways to curb imports of cheap, right-hand drive cars.

Norway: Electric vehicles are in charge

Electric cars are immensely popular in Norway. The national government began incentivizing EVs in 1990 by eliminating the purchase/import taxes on battery-powered models. In 2018, the list of perks also includes a lower annual road tax, free tolls and ferries, free parking and access to bus lanes. The government admits princely incentives are the number one reason buyers choose to drive electric.

It also helps that electricity is cheap in Norway as it generates vast amounts from its hydroelectric schemes, but has a small population - though prices are up this year due to low levels of rainfall. About a quarter of the cars registered in Norway run on electricity. Most are in or near big cities like Oslo and Bergen.

Russia: German cars rule the roost in Moscow

The number of luxury cars prowling the streets of the Russian capital is staggering. In many parts of the city, there are more German cars (notably from Mercedes-Benz and BMW) than Ladas; you’re more likely to see a GLE than a Niva. The German-Russian ratio gradually adjusts as you venture into the Russian countryside.

Spain: Motorists have traditionally shunned hatchbacks

New car buyers in markets like France and Italy have gravitated towards hatchbacks since the 1960s but the body style isn’t nearly as popular in Spain. In the 1970s, Renault had to release a three-box variant of the 5 called 7 in a bid to increase its share of the local market. The model was made and sold exclusively in Spain.

More recently, Citroën sold a three-box C4 named C-Elysée (pictured) in Spain well before it decided to add the car to its catalog in France.

Sweden: 15-year olds drive home-made pickups

While Volvo never made the 240 as a pickup, there are hundreds of chopped-up examples roaming around Sweden with a two-person cab and a cargo box. They’re classified as tractors by a century-old Swedish law and anyone over 15 is allowed to drive one.

It’s not just 240s; nearly anything goes. We’ve seen Mercedes-Benz W123s, nearly every type of Volvo imaginable, American vans, Nissan SUVs even an Opel Commodore turned into a tractor. Some are worryingly amateur-made while others look factory-fresh. The catch is that, to be considered a tractor, cars must be modified to ensure they can’t transport more than two passengers, fitted with a cargo box and equipped with a trailer hitch. They’re not allowed to drive over about 30 mph, either.

UK: One of the largest population of convertibles

Convertibles are more popular in the UK than in France, Italy and Spain. Research carried out by Citroën in 2013 crowned Elmbridge in southern England as the convertible capital of the UK. There were over 5,300 topless cars registered in the area, a statistic which represents one convertible for every 25 residents.

The same study revealed convertibles make up 3.1 percent of all cars in the UK, an unusually high statistic. The UK is generally colder than its European neighbours to the south - but it seems Brits love to make the most of it when the sun does deign to shine. 

UK: Hot hatches in historically high demand

The car companies who make hot hatches consider the UK one of their most important markets. The segment began taking off around the turn of the 1980s. In 1983, nearly a quarter of the Volkswagen Golfs sold in the UK were GTIs. Hot hatch fever also reached enthusiasts in other markets during the 1980s but it cooled down during the following decade; buyers in the UK continued surfing the wave.

That’s why Peugeot developed the 306 Rallye exclusively for the UK. British enthusiasts continue to buy more hot hatches than others in 2018.

US: The three top-selling vehicles are pickup trucks

America’s love affair with pickup trucks is as strong as ever. In 2017, the top three best-selling vehicles were the Ford F-Series (896,764 units sold), the Chevrolet Silverado (585,864 units sold) and the Ram pickup (500,723 units sold). The F-Series – a nameplate that encompasses the F-150 and heavy-duty models like the F-250 (pictured) – has led the sales chart for 41 consecutive years.

The pickup truck market is closely aligned to the economy - and especially the construction and energy sectors. And crewcab four-door pickups - by far the most popular form of this vehicle type - have the advantage of being work-tools during the week, and family holdalls at the weekend. 

What about fuel prices? Well, though Americans who never drive abroad might not be aware of this, but American prices are very low compared to most other places, so running a heavy thirsty truck is not a huge problem for most. Today's current US average price of $2.56 per gallon compares to a price of $6.16 in Britain, for example.

US: Not everyone needs to get their car inspected

In America, counties have the authority to decide whether vehicles need to pass an annual (or a biennial) safety and emissions inspection. Some counties make an exemption for vehicles of a certain age (new cars, classic cars or both) while others have eliminated testing altogether. There are even states (including Michigan, Montana and North Dakota) that never require an inspection of any kind regardless of the type of car, the fuel it burns or its age.

And yes, you do see plenty of clunkers in those states rattling around.