The majority of respondents (79%) lived in a household with a car, with 43% having one car, 28% two cars, and 8% three or more cars. These findings are consistent with previous research carried out by the Energy Saving Trust in February 2008 (tracker survey) and by the Defra survey in 2007. Of those who lived in a household with a car, 83% said they were a driver.

Drivers were asked a series of follow-up questions about how much they drove personally and the type of car they normally used. Responses to these questions are summarised in Table 29 compared with the equivalent findings from the 2008 Energy Saving Trust tracker survey.

A little more than a third (37%) of drivers drove less than 5,000 miles per year, while slightly fewer than one quarter (22%) said they drove 5,000 – 7,999 miles. Around one in five (18%) said they drove 8,000 – 10,999 miles per year with a similar proportion (21%) saying they drove 11,000 miles or more. There have been changes in the distances people report driving per year – with an increase in those driving less than 5,000 miles from 25% in February 2008 to 37% in 2009 and a decrease in those driving between 11,000 and 15,999 miles per year, from 15% in 2009 to 10% in 2009.

Respondents who drove were asked what size engine the car they drove the majority of the time had. One half (50%) normally drove a car with a 1.5 – 2.0 litre engine. Just over one third (37%) of drivers normally drove a car with an engine of less than 1.5 litres and a smaller proportion (11%) said they normally drove a car with an engine of more than 2.0 litres. These data are broadly consistent with figures from 2008.

The majority (70%) of drivers drove a car with a petrol engine the majority of the time, with just over a quarter (29%) driving a car with a diesel engine. A very small proportion of drivers (1%) said they normally drove a car with a LPG, hybrid, electric or other type of engine. These data are consistent with figures from 2008.