Drivers of transport consumption

  • At EU level, the energy consumption of transport increased by 28 Mtoe between 2000 and 2019, and fell by 14 Mtoe between 2019 and 2021; as a result, it was 14 Mtoe higher in 2021 than in 2000. 
  • Between 2019 and 2021, two factors contributed to lower consumption: a drop in traffic of passenger and goods ("activity effect"), that contributed to decrease this consumption by 25 Mtoe and energy savings (i.e. change in the efficiency of cars, trucks, airplanes, etc.), that reduced consumption by 6 Mtoe. 
  • These effects were partially counterbalanced by the modal shift, i.e. changes in the share of transport mode in the total traffic, that contributed to an increase by 5 Mtoe (mainly due to higher share of cars) and by other effects (+12 Mtoe), mainly explained by lower occupancy rates for passenger transport (cars and public transport).   

Drivers of energy consumption variation in transport at EU level (2019-2021)


  • Between 2000 and 2019, the increase in traffics contributed to increase the transport consumption by 48 Mtoe and the "modal shift" by around 6 Mtoe. Other effects also contributed to increase the consumption by around 3 Mtoe. 
  • "Energy savings" partially counterbalanced these effects, leading to a decrease by 30 Mtoe of transport energy consumption. 

Drivers of energy consumption variation in transport at EU level (2000-2019)