> Yet governments insist newbuilds to be on electric heating
Not only that, but they insist that almost all vehicle transportation should be electric in maximum 10-15 years.
Not only that, but they insist that almost all vehicle transportation should be electric in maximum 10-15 years.
Even at that point it’ll still be decades before electric vehicles make up the majority of road traffic.
What you want to know is the average life of a vehicle (or average age of the fleet), not the average period of ownership.
I'm sure that varies by country; IIRC Germany has punative taxes on registering old cars, so their average age should be a lot less than in the US where registration tax usually is based on value, so goes down as the vehicle ages. I seem to recall average fleet age of about 20 years in the US.
On a personal note, me and most of the people I know think more in terms of miles than years. I figure every car I buy is good for 200,000 miles and most of the brands I favor have another 100,000 miles of life beyond that before repairs exceed some loosely calculated rate of return.
I think that partly depends on how you drive and where you live. I'm in a snowy climate: my engine might have no problem going 250,000 miles, but there's virtually no chance the body is drivable after 30-40 years of rust.
With that, I tend to buy a car in years, for example: "I'm hoping to have this for the next 6 years".