Are Malaysian youths turning their backs on car ownership?
The declining rates of Gen Z drivers poses a compelling question: could the younger generation be turning their backs on car ownership?
MEDINA ONN27 Feb 2025 02:00pm
It seems that car ownership amongst Gen Z is indeed lower in comparison to earlier generations. Photo: Canva
We’ve all had our jaws drop upon seeing the fees they charge during peak hours. So why don’t people just save themselves the trouble and purchase a car of their own?
US Federal Highway Administration data reveals that from 1983 to 2018, the percentage of 18-year old Americans with driving licenses have plummeted from 80 per cent to 61 per cent — nearly a 20 per cent decrease.
The popularity boom of ride-hailing services combined with the declining rates of Gen Z drivers poses a compelling question: could the younger generation be turning their backs on car ownership?
We ran an online survey with 25 respondents: over 16 per cent of participants cited the underlying costs of car maintenance as their main reason behind not owning a car.
One 18-year-old student wrote: "It’s expensive to buy a car; gas prices are high. I’m too young in my opinion — and cars no longer have that 'wow-factor', symbolising wealth, compared to a few years ago.
"So why try to double down and go into debt, just so that my neighbours can think I'm more well off than I really am?"
Local financial comparison platform CompareHero crunched the numbers — and here’s what they found.
Taking into account monthly repayments, the cost of petrol, car insurance, maintenance and parking fees, CompareHero found that over the course of five years, the average total cost of car ownership can amount to over RM95,000.
Bear in mind — this is assuming you already have a monthly salary coming in. Most members of Gen Z (aged 13 to 28) are still studying, with a total of one million students enrolled in Malaysian universities as of 2025.
"I have no source of income," says Joshua Lau Hao Jie, a 20-year-old student. "I live in the campus hostel, so I won't be travelling that much anyway. I’ll only buy a car once I graduate."
Even with a full-time job: one 26-year-old sales banker states that the rising cost of living in Malaysia takes up a substantial chunk of his salary, rendering him unable to make major purchases, such as a car.
It's an ongoing battle countless other Malaysians are fighting. A 2020 consumer sentiment index (CSI) survey conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research revealed that over 75.3 per cent of respondents were concerned about the escalating cost of living.
Although inflation in Malaysia has reportedly gone down from four per cent in November 2022 to 1.5 per cent in November 2023, combined with stagnating wages, many are still struggling to keep up with rising prices.
A 2023 survey held by Etiqa verifies this correlation: reporting that over 24 per cent of young Malaysians they surveyed have postponed major purchases, due to lacking finances.
Two respondents in the online survey also cited "environmental impact" as one of their reservations surrounding car ownership, naming carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels for petrol as examples.
"Even electric or hybrid cars aren't perfect," one 18-year old student wrote. "They’re also not very accessible."
The shared stance of these two respondents track with the findings of Deloitte's Global 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey — which reveals that on average, Malaysian Gen Zs and Millennials tend to possess higher than global levels of climate anxiety.
Over 71 per cent of Malaysian Gen Zs and Millennials disclosed that they've felt worried or anxious about climate change in the past month.
Taking all of this information into account: can we finally decree whether or not Gen Z are turning their backs on car ownership?
From the data cited, we can clearly see that the declining rates of car ownership amongst Gen Z certainly do not come from a lack of trying.
Whether it be due to concerns regarding Malaysia's worsening environment, or insufficient income due to factors outside of our own control — these statistics can be attributed to struggles shared by all Malaysians, regardless of generation.
Furthermore, to imply that all of Gen Z is making the conscious, unanimous decision to shift away from cars is a bit misleading. It's likelier that a majority of Gen Z just hasn't reached the stage in their life where car ownership is an absolute must.
Returning to the US case study, the number of young Americans driving had significantly declined by 2014 compared to previous generations, birthing the narrative that Millennials all over America were taking a radical anti-car stance.
But as Millennials grew into working adults, their responsibilities would start to increase, as well as their salaries.
Slowly but surely, the rate of car ownership amongst Millennials began to rise. We came to discover that there wasn't much of a generational divide after all — with CityLab reporting that the difference in car ownership between Millennials and Boomers only amounted to a net difference of about one per cent.
In conclusion, it seems that car ownership amongst Gen Z is indeed lower in comparison to earlier generations.
But it is far more likely that it is a direct consequence of a lack in financial security combined with a lack in necessity, rather than it being a deliberate attempt at going against the grain.
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