I am trying to find out how many motor vehicles there are in china.
The number should include cars, lorries, and agricultural vehicles.

Dear toucan,

According to official Chinese sources, made available in the online
statistical yearbook 'China - Facts & Figures 2001', the numbers of
motorized vehicles in China were:

14,529,400 civil motor vehicles, consisting of
- 7,402,300 buses and cars
- 6,769,500 trucks of all types

209,900 special motor vehicles

7,644,700 tractors of all types

3,456,960 other motor vehicles

5,017,700 vehicles for business transportation, consisting of
- 921,400 buses and cars
- 4,096,200 trucks of all types

All numbers represent represent the year 1999 (my search returned no
newer official data available) and seem to be slightly rounded, which
causes some inconsistencies. Please note also that these are figures
published by the Chinese government; they need not necessarily
represent real conditions.

Sources:

China - Facts & Figures, by the China Internet Information Center,
2001
http://www.china.org.cn/e-Internet/index.htm

China - Facts & Figures 2001: Economy / Transportation
http://www.china.org.cn/e-Internet/JJ/HTM/jtys.htm

China - Facts & Figures 2001: Number of civil motor vehicles owned
http://www.china.org.cn/e-Internet/JJ/HTM/15-28.htm

China - Facts & Figures 2001: Number of vehicles for business
transportation
http://www.china.org.cn/e-Internet/JJ/HTM/15-30.htm

Search terms used:
official statistics china 2002:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&newwindow=1&q=official+statistics+china+2002&meta=

Hope this is what you were looking for!
Regards,
Scriptor

Thanks Scriptor.

I expect the actual "true" figures to be somewhat higher, but this is
what I was looking for.

Many thanks,

Toucan.

How often did I get a question on a subject that was part of an event
the evening before? Never ever here, until just now.
Yesterday I attended a presentation of a leading expert on the
automotive industry here in Shanghai. He gave all the figures you ask
for, and I did not take notes, since he would send me the presentation
later in the week when he would be back in the US.
What I can say is that most figures I saw online are not true,
confusing and I saw already other colleague-researchers giving up on
the question. I cannot help you out now, but can do this later in the
week.

Hope to help you later,

Regards,

Fons

Thanks Fons,

Look forward to receiving your answers!

Regards,

James

Ah, what do I love those Chinese statistics. You always end up with
more questions than answers.
What are those 3,456,960 other motor vehicles?
Should you add up all those categories to get a total figure? 
Are the trucks for business transport included or excluded from the
subscategory of 6,769,500 trucks of all types?

Yes, they are facts and figures, but what do they mean?

Fons - agreed, one suspects that even the chinese government does not
know the true figure - for example how many unregistered cars/vehicles
might there be?, how many military vehicles (they are unlikely to
publish those after all)?

Even so the number seems staggeringly low for a country with such a
massive population, even if a high percentage live below the poverty
line.

Thanks all...