The number of registered motor vehicles (including motorbikes) in China hit a record high of 417 million in 2022, an increase of 5.56 percent over the figure of 395 million in 2021, with the number of automobiles alone reaching 319 million, according to data released by the Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday.

The data also showed that in each of 84 major cities in China, the number of registered automobiles was higher than 1 million, and in each of the mega cities such as Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing and Shanghai, the number exceeded 5 million in the past year.

Meanwhile, by the end of 2022, the number of registered new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China had reached 13.1 million, accounting for 4.1 percent of the total number of automobiles. In 2022 alone, the number of newly registered NEVs rose to a whopping 5.35 million, or 23.05 percent of the total number of newly registered automobiles.

In addition, a total of 30.27 million used motor vehicles were traded across the country by the end of 2022, the data showed.

The data also indicated a boom in used car transactions. In the past five years, the ratio of used car registration to new car registration has increased from 0.77 to 1.24, which means the number of newly traded used cars were more than the number of new cars registered in the five-year period.

In 2022, the country introduced a series of measures to facilitate used car trading such as separating registration and issuance of temporary license plates as well as promoting online service windows for used car registration.