In today's world, the main production and consumption markets of RV are North America, Europe, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and other regions. According to relevant data statistics, by the end of 2022, the overall market of RV in the world was close to 23 million units, and the new demand in 2022 was about 800,000 units. Among them, the North American market dominated by the United States and Canada and the European market dominated by Germany, France and the United Kingdom accounted for about 90% of the RV consumption market, while emerging RV consumption markets such as China, Japan and South Korea have also been developing very rapidly in recent years.
United States
Since the 1920s, RVs have been popular in the United States. Based on the early development of industry and economy, after a hundred years of development, the United States has always been the world's largest RV market, and the camping industry supporting RVs is also very mature and perfect. As of 2022, there are hundreds of RV manufacturers in North America, with a very complete industrial chain such as parts production and sales.
According to the Relevant Statistics of RV Industry Association (RVIA), the number of RVs in the United States will exceed 16 million by the end of 2023. By the end of 2022, the number of RVs sold in the United States was 492,598, down 17.9% from 600,090 in 2021. Among them, the number of trailers sold was 434,374 (accounting for 88.18%) and the number of self-driving vehicles sold was 58,224 (accounting for 11.82%).
Thanks to its non-tourism residential function and car tax reduction policy, the American RV market is dominated by trailers, and it is also the world's largest trailer RV market. The common self-propelled RVs are mainly A-type or B-type RVs. American RVs are generally characterized by rough appearance, high chassis and large volume space.
The United States is a large and sparsely populated country, where private cars are more popular than public transportation. Meanwhile, the National Park Service of the United States manages more than 400 national parks and historical sites, which are rich in scenic resources. Therefore, many forms of RV camps with unique representatives have been built on these public lands. At present, there are more than 20,000 campsites. Every year, millions of tourists drive private cars and RVs into these campsites to enjoy beautiful natural scenery and carry out a variety of recreational activities.
On the RV consumption side, RV ownership in the United States has increased by more than 62% over the past 20 years, with a record 11.2 million households owning RVs. The proportion of RV-owning households over 55 and under 55 is almost flat. There are also 9.6 million households planning to purchase a RV in the next 5 years, with a significant increase in 18 to 34-year-olds, accounting for 22% of the market. Meanwhile, according to the latest survey report released by the RV Industry Association of America (RVIA) in 2023: 37% of US leisure travelers, or 67 million people, plan to take a RV trip this year (2023). On the RV trip plan, respondents mainly used it to explore outdoor activities and gain extra flexibility through remote work/study through RV travel.
Europe
The development of RV industry in Europe can be traced back to the post-World War II period, when the European economy recovered rapidly and the RV, which had been popular in the United States, began to spread to Europe. In the early days, RVs in Europe were mainly modified vans. In the 1960s, various models began to appear gradually. Afterwards, with the rise of RV industry, RV campsites and related industries that provide supporting services for RV travel also achieved rapid development.
Affected by the continuous shortage of supply chain, although there is still a very large demand for RVs in the European RV market in 2022, the shortage of supply chain has hindered RV production, and the registration of new vehicles has fallen significantly compared with last year. According to the data released by the European RV Industry Association (ECF): in the whole year of 2022, the registration of new vehicles in the European RV market reached 218,390 units, down 16.1% compared with 2021. Among them, the registration of new self-propelled RVs reached 147,498 units, down 18.7% compared with 2021, and the registration of trailer RVs was 70,892 units, down 10.1% compared with 2021. By the end of 2022, the overall holding of the European RV market was about 6.37 million units.
The consumption structure of the European RV market is significantly different from that of the US RV market, similar to China, with self-propelled RVs as the mainstream. At the same time, the vehicles adopt lightweight plate structure, making the vehicle weight lighter. Among them, Germany, France and the UK are the top three RV consumption markets in Europe. In 2022, the registration of new vehicles will be 90,985 (Germany), 31,941 (France) and 25,707 (UK) respectively. Thanks to the century-long development of RVs and rich natural scenic spots, the number of campsites in Europe ranks first in the world. As of 2022, according to incomplete statistics, the number of campsites in the whole Europe has exceeded 40,000, with complete types of campsites.
As an early region of RV industry development, Europe has a mature and perfect RV industry, whose market volume is closely following the United States in the world RV list. In the process of development, many well-known RV accessories enterprises have been born, such as Thetford of the Netherlands, FIAMMA of Italy, DOMETIC of Sweden, Truma of Germany, etc., which are well-known companies providing parts for RV manufacturing. In addition, as the basic policies and road regulations of the European RV industry are similar to those of China, they have a high reference value for the development of the Chinese RV market.
Australia
In the early 1990s, the Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA) was established to establish and unify the standard specifications of caravans and promote them throughout the country, thus beginning the prelude of its caravan industry.
According to data released by the Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA), the number of new cars entering the domestic caravan market in Australia and the number of caravan exports in 2022 reached the highest level ever. In the whole year of 2022, a total of nearly 50,000 new caravans entered the Australian caravan market, among which the number of new cars produced locally reached 28,031 (up 17.1% year on year) and the number of new cars imported reached 20,498 (up 8.36% year on year); in terms of export data, the number of Australian caravans exported reached a record high of 9,568 (up 229.93% year on year) by the end of December 2022.
Although the detailed data of Australian imported RVs has not been released, it is not difficult to analyze the 2021 Australian RV import data and the Chinese RV export situation that in the 20498 new vehicles imported to Australia in 2022, the proportion of RVs manufactured in China is expected to exceed 50%.
Due to the large area and sparse population, as well as the special geographical characteristics, the consumption structure of Australian RV is similar to that of the United States, which is also dominated by trailers. The general quality of Australian trailers is in the range of 1000-1500kg, which belongs to light tractor trailers. At the same time, most of them have certain off-road attributes and can adapt to some more complex terrain. The general quality of self-propelled RV is about 3-5 tons, 70% of which are diesel vehicles. Since 2009, the average age of Australian RV has been steadily decreasing, and remained roughly unchanged at 17.3 years in 2021. The two states with the largest average age of RV are Western Australia and Tasmania, which are 22.9 years and 22.8 years respectively.
RV travel is a very mature and perfect way of traveling in Australia, most Australians have RV vacation and camp vacation experience. Australia is located in the southern hemisphere, with highly developed domestic tourism and a large number of overseas tourists. Tourists driving RVs to carry out tourism activities have injected huge vitality into the Australian economy, and local governments have also adopted policies to guide the development, providing free overnight RV camps for tourists, building parking lots in central business districts for tourists to purchase, and building perfect camp infrastructure. Up to now, RV tourism has become the fastest growing tourism type in the Australian tourism industry and the highest degree of tourist participation.
Japan
Compared with many Asian countries, Japan's modern economy started earlier, which also provided the basis for the popularity of RV. The first domestic RV was developed and released in 1980. Then in 1994, the Japan RV Association (JRVA) was formally established, which standardized the Japanese RV industry and laid the foundation for the rapid and orderly development of the Japanese RV industry.
According to the survey statistics report of the 2023 edition of "Caravan White Paper" released by the Japan RV Association (JRVA), the total sales of new and used caravans in Japan in 2022 reached a record high of 76.25 billion yen, up 20% year on year compared with 63.54 billion yen in 2021. In terms of possession, by the end of 2022, the total possession of caravans in Japan reached 145,000 units, an increase of more than 9,000 units compared with 2021.
Affected by the outdoor craze represented by the car accommodation, the Japanese camping car culture is constantly penetrating into people's lives. The Japanese RV Association believes that there is a very strong demand for camping cars, which maintains a stable growth trend as a whole. The RV market scale is also continuously expanding, and is expected to further grow in the future, reaching the standard of about 1.4 million camping cars in Germany.
Japan is an island developed country, a small land area but a large population, at the same time by the road conditions in Japan, through the development of RV in the Japanese market for more than 30 years, also gave birth to the characteristics of the national conditions of the micro-car (kcar). As a classification of vehicles exclusive to Japan, the size of the micro-car is generally no more than 3400×1480×2000mm, the maximum total mass is not more than 350kg, the number of seats is not more than 4, the displacement is not more than 0.66L, the body is small and flexible, the space utilization rate is high, enough to meet the use of 2-4 people.
In addition, due to the purchase of mini-van without providing a parking permit, and enjoy taxes, premiums and other factors, making mini-van occupy the majority of the Japanese RV market share. It is understood that in Japan, in addition to 61.6% of the RV owners will RV for leisure travel, there are 26.6% and 9.8% of the people put the RV as a workplace + living place to use, and the proportion is increasing.
In Japan, there are an estimated 3,000 campsites in operation, and the national park RV camps have uniform operation standards. Most campsites provide basic facilities such as shower facilities, electricity and water pipes, and playgrounds. The campsite generally charges visitors 3,000 to 7,000 yen per night, and usually leaves enough space for RVs, tents, tables and chairs, but only one tent is allowed to be set up in a RV. Campsites in the northern part of Japan's national parks are open from May and June to October every year, and most national park campsites in the southern part are open year-round. Many RV camps are suitable for family entertainment, and are good places for parents and children to go.
South Korea
South Korea's RV market is relatively late in development, initially formed in 2010, mainly imported RVs. Since 2013, South Korea's largest automaker - Hyundai released a self-propelled B-type RV Starex, South Korea's RV market began to develop rapidly, and formally established the South Korean RV Industry Association at the end of 2022, opening up the road for South Korean RVs to promote overseas.
South Korea has promoted the upward development of the RV industry by improving policies, laws and systems. As the representative RV association in South Korea, the Korea RV Industry Association has played a key role in the development of RV culture in South Korea by holding and promoting RV-related exhibitions and various activities, such as the 2023 Busan RV Camping Exhibition, the 2023 RV Camping and Picnic Expo Summer Market, the 2023 Yangpyeong Ice Trout Festival, and the 3rd Suwon RV Exhibition. By holding and promoting RV-related exhibitions and various activities, the Korea RV Industry Association has expanded the entire RV industry, established standards to improve RV quality, and implemented long-term plans to promote overseas development.
Since the country is not large and there are no particularly complex road conditions, the Korean RV will not be designed to be particularly large and complex. Since 2020, the Korean government has promulgated relevant policies, allowing various types of models to be transformed into RVs, while relaxing the unified standards for RV accommodation, cooking, washing and other facilities, and allowing the development of various RVs according to customer needs, such as the large SUV transformed into a camping car, which has received a certain amount of attention from the public. Others are mainly imported RVs from the United States and Europe. The Korean trailer RV market started late, basically starting in 2018.
During the growth of the RV industry in South Korea, the camping population has grown by about 10 times from its original 600,000 to 6 million. As of 2021, there are reportedly 4,100 campsites and campgrounds operating nationwide. With the growing demand from young families in South Korea for convenient outdoor travel, its weekend RV camping leisure trips have grown far more than the long-distance RV trips once or twice a year.
China
It is generally believeIt is generally believed that the 1999 New Year film "Be There or Be Square" marked the appearance of Chinese RV. The domestic RV officially started its development in 2000, with the number of RVs in China reaching 1550 in 2007 and more than 4000 in 2010. In recent years, due to the popularity of camping and self-driving travel, the domestic tourism market has continued to recover, and the rapid growth trend of China's RV market is obvious, with sales and ownership constantly breaking new records.
By the end of 2022, the total number of registrations in China's sojourn car (RV) market was about 13,706, down about 12.87% year-on-year compared with the previous year, but still the second best result on record; among them, the total number of domestic self-propelled sojourn cars reached 11,266 (down 9.6% year-on-year compared with 2021, accounting for 82.2% of the total number of registrations), and the number of domestic sojourn trailers was about 2,440 (down 25% year-on-year compared with 2021, accounting for 17.8% of the total number of registrations); in terms of total ownership, by the end of 2022, China's comprehensive RV ownership was about 212,000 (including camp RV, special vehicle modified RV, commercial RV and self-modified RV, etc.).
In 2022, according to the data of cccheck, there are nearly 3000 enterprises related to RV, including RV clubs, RV accessories, RV sales, RV leasing, RV manufacturers, etc. At present, there are more than 300 domestic RV modification enterprises, and nearly 200 enterprises apply for RV modification announcements. The annual announcement models in 2022 include 373 self-driving RVs (sightseeing vehicles, accounting for 82.2%) and 81 towed RVs (sightseeing trailers, accounting for 17.8%). Compared with 449 self-driving RVs and 118 towed RVs in 2021, the year-on-year decreases are 17% (self-driving RVs) and 31% (towed RVs), respectively.
According to the relevant data statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2010 to 2021, the proportion of the population over 60 years old in the total population in China increased year by year, indicating a clear trend of an aging society. Meanwhile, according to the survey of exhibitors at large international RV exhibitions held by Lucheng.com X RV in recent years, retirees accounted for nearly half of the exhibition audience, which is the main consumer group of RV exhibitions; behind the rapid development of China's RV market, the elderly bear the main force of annual sales of domestic self-propelled RVs.
In terms of vehicle type selection, self-propelled RV is the mainstream in China at present.
