Licensed vehicles by body type

Official statistics for licensed vehicles broken down by local authority in Great Britain are published by the Department for Transport (DfT) via the Vehicle licensing statistics data tables.

Vehicles are assigned to a local authority according to the postcode of the registered keeper. This is the keeper's address for privately owned vehicles or the registered corporate address for company-owned fleets. The address shows registration rather than physical location, meaning that large corporate or leasing fleets can skew local totals if a company changes its registered headquarters.

Statistics are published each quarter (e.g. January to March 2026) and data from Table VEH0105 provides the number of licensed vehicles for each of the 11 Surrey Borough and District Councils.

For each council area, you can track:

• Body Type: Total cars, motorcycles, light goods vehicles (LGVs), heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), buses and coaches, Other vehicles.

• Fuel Type: Total petrol, diesel, hybrid, other fuel types.

• Keepership: Distinction between company-registered fleet vehicles and privately kept vehicles.

For March 2026, Surrey contained a total of 816,255 licensed vehicles, broken down as follows:

• 1,788 buses and coaches

• 693,195 cars

• 5,177 HGVs

• 76,283 LGVs

• 30,771 motorcycles

• 9,041 other vehicles

Three other tables in the release provide local authority level values:

VEH0132: Licensed ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) at the end of the quarter by fuel type, keepership (private and company) and upper and lower tier local authority.

VEH0142: Licensed plug-in vehicles (PiVs) at the end of the quarter by body type, fuel type, keepership (private and company) and upper and lower tier local authority.

VEH9901: Licensed road using cars and light goods vehicles by local authority, body type, fuel type, CO2 band, keepership, and year of first registration.

Body types

DVLA record a vehicle body type for each registered vehicle. These body types relate to the physical construction of the vehicle but not the way in which it is currently being used. The key body type groups used are:

• Cars: 4-wheel vehicles including people carriers and all passenger carrying vehicles that can carry no more than eight passengers (excluding the driver). Includes private hire taxis (PHV – Private Hire Vehicles) that are car based. Hackney Carriages are in the ‘Other vehicles’ group.

• Motorcycles: 2-wheel vehicles powered by an engine. Includes Scooters and Mopeds.

• Light goods vehicles / light vans: 4-wheel vehicles constructed for transporting goods. Must have a gross weight of 3.5 tonnes or less. This includes road tractors and curtain sided vehicles (with a gross weight of 3.5 tonnes or less).

• Heavy goods vehicles: Larger vehicles constructed for transporting goods. Must have a gross weight more than 3.5 tonnes. This includes road tractors and curtain sided vehicles (with a gross weight of over 3.5 tonnes).

• Buses and coaches: Includes minibuses (which can carry no more than sixteen passengers) and all other passenger carrying vehicles with nine seats or more (excluding the driver’s seat).

• Other vehicles: All vehicles not mentioned above. Includes rear diggers, lift trucks, rollers, ambulances, Hackney Carriages, three wheelers and agricultural vehicles. Up to 2007 road tractors and curtain sided vehicles were included. They are now categorised in the light and heavy goods categories (see above).

Frequency: Calendar Year