9 out of 10 Car Owners Use Their Vehicle for Less Than 2 Hours a Day

Socar, '2023 Private Car Awareness Survey'
60% Say "Car Sharing is Socially Necessary"
Annual Vehicle Maintenance Cost Reaches 4 Million Won

Nine out of ten private car owners use their vehicles for less than two hours a day, leaving the rest of the time parked.

Socar released the results of the "2023 Private Car Perception Survey" on the 15th, conducted in celebration of the 20th Automobile Day. The survey targeted 1,200 adults nationwide aged 25 to 54 who hold a driver's license and have driven within the past year. The sample was evenly composed of 200 men and women each from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s birth cohorts, and the results have a 95% confidence level.

The survey found that 68% of private car owners use their vehicles for less than 10 hours per week. Additionally, 19.1% reported using their cars for 15 hours or less per week, meaning that in reality, nine out of ten people use their private cars for less than two hours a day and leave them parked over 90% of the time. Regarding social costs such as traffic congestion and environmental issues caused by private car ownership, 59.8% agreed, with 62.4% in non-metropolitan areas and 57.8% in metropolitan areas expressing this view.

Among those without private cars, the reasons for not planning to purchase a vehicle in the future were economic burden (31%), low usage rate (28.2%), convenience of public transportation (27.5%), and parking stress (26.8%), in that order. For private car owners, dissatisfaction after purchasing a vehicle was mainly due to low efficiency relative to expenses (60%) and parking stress (45.7%). When broken down by age group, those born in the 1970s reported parking space shortages (52.3%) more frequently, those born in the 1980s cited economic burden (48.6%) more often, and those born in the 1990s experienced driving-related stress (26.9%) at higher rates compared to other age groups.

Perceptions of car-sharing are also gradually changing. Both private car owners and non-owners responded positively at a rate of 61.4% to the statement that "car-sharing is a socially necessary service," while only 8.4% responded negatively. A high proportion of respondents believed that car-sharing contributes to economic benefits, environmental improvements, alleviation of traffic congestion and parking problems, and reduction of social costs.

Regarding the statement "car-sharing can replace a second car," 43.8% agreed. Among those born in the 1990s, who are relatively more familiar with car-sharing, 48.3% agreed, nearly twice the 24.5% who disagreed that it is irreplaceable. When asked if they could live without a private car if there were no job or family-related issues, 48.1% responded positively, with the highest rate of 51.7% among those born in the 1990s.

The average amount spent on purchasing a private car was 34 million KRW. The largest proportion (44.4%) spent between 20 million and 40 million KRW, and monthly maintenance costs were between 200,000 and 400,000 KRW for 49% of respondents. Additionally, 26.4% reported spending more than 600,000 KRW monthly. When annualized, this means that maintaining one private car costs over 4 million KRW per year.

Park Jae-wook, CEO of Socar, stated, "Over the past 12 years, Socar has strived to minimize unnecessary social costs caused by private car ownership while providing convenient mobility services for everyone." He added, "We will continue to work hard to become a more perfect mobility platform that satisfies all demands through diverse mobility services that transcend generations and regions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.