Chinese own more than 53 million private cars

BEIJING - The number of registered private cars reached 53.08 million units by the end of 2012, up 22.8 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

Registered motor vehicles exceeded 120 million units, up 14.3 percent year-on-year, according to NBS's statistics.

Of the total, 93.09 million units are privately owned, up 18.3 percent from a year earlier, NBS said.

The country's freightage totaled 41.2 billion tons in 2012, up 11.5 percent year-on-year, while its freight volume hit 17.3 trillion tons, marking an increase of 8.7 percent from a year earlier.

Passenger traffic totaled 37.9 billion trips, up 7.6 percent year-on-year, according to NBS.