The annual oil consumption of new vehicles is equivalent to the oil production volume of an oil refinery with a 20 million ton refining capacity, reports Caing.com citing Chen Bin from National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on September 4.

Chen Bin said oil consumption per vehicle in China was much higher than developed countries, even though the oil consumption of passenger vehicles was lowered to 8.13 liters per 100 kilometers in 2008 from 9.11 liters in 2002.

According to Xinhuanet, the number of vehicles in China totaled 62 million by the end of 2009.

Refined oil consumption by vehicles increased by 16 million tons from 2008 to 134.8 million tons in 2009, accounting for 63.2 percent of the total annual gasoline and diesel production volume.

Statistics from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center showed the auto production capacity of 30 major auto makers in China reached 13.59 million vehicles in 2009 and would continue to expand to 31.24 million by the end of 2015