The average age of motor vehicles on Croatian roads is 14.3 years, and in 2021 as many as 19.7 percent of them failed their first attempt at the annual mandatory technical inspection, state agency Hina said on Thursday, citing a report from the national center for vehicles.

In 2020, the average age of vehicles was 14.2 years. Out of 2.27 million vehicles inspected in 2021, more than 448,000 were found to be faulty in some way, with an average of 5.14 deficiencies detected per faulty vehicle. Most of these concerned lighting and light-signalling devices (560,000) and brake systems (537,000).

As in past years, more than 65,000 vehicles did not pass the emissions test, and more than 45,000 errors were found in control systems. Last year saw an increase in hybrid and electrical vehicles registered, with 15,918 hybrids – nearly double from 8,080 in 2020 – and 3,054 electric vehicles – nearly  double from 1,343 in 2020.

Last year the average distance traveled by vehicles in Croatia was 10,016 km, down from 12,542 km in 2019.

According to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) from 2021, personal passenger vehicles are on average around 11.5 years old across the EU. Estonia, Lithuania, and Romania have the oldest fleets with average age of over 16 years. On the other end of the scale are Luxembourg and Austria, where cars are on average 6.5 and 8.3 years old respectively.