Improved public transport means cars aren't the convenience they once were. Will any amount of smartphone integration or energy innovation succeed in bringing Millennials back into the fold of car ownership? Mike Clay writes.

For decades the car has been seen as a status symbol, a sign of adulthood and a marker of freedom. But no generation took to the car quite like the Baby Boomers.

Growing up on a diet of Mad Max, the Dukes of Hazzard, and Starsky and Hutch, a generation of car owners grew to revere the icons of motoring: Mustang, Valiant, Falcon and Porsche.

When a boy became a man, he bought a car. When a man became successful, he bought a bigger one. When kids came along, the two-seater was traded in for the family sports wagon. At every stage, the car represented freedom and convenience.

But for the first time in the history of motoring, that's starting to change. A growing number of Australians now see the car more as a burden than a liberation, and it's the younger generation that is leading the charge.

In 1920s Australia, there was one car for every 55 people. Today, it's more than one for every two people.

"Australians are very, very passionate about their vehicles," says Lenore Fletcher from BMW Australia. Carmakers are hoping that passion continues, long into the future. "It's a mature market, it's also a very stable market," says Ms Fletcher. "We are selling, across Australia, across all brands, around 1.1 million vehicles per year."

But those stable sales are being outpaced by Australia's population growth. More people should mean more cars. But for the first time, it doesn't.

The release of October figures for new car sales by the Australian Bureau of Statistics should be a warning sign for carmakers. Sales of new passenger vehicles have dropped sharply since the Global Financial Crisis and have not recovered since. They are now at their lowest, per head of population, than at any time in the last 20 years.

Over 12 million passenger vehicles sped along our roads in 2013, and that number has risen every year. But though we now own more cars than ever before, we are actually driving them less. The average number of kilometres travelled has declined 10 per cent in the past decade, and fewer people are using their cars to get to full-time work or study. Experts are warning that this could herald the beginning of 'Peak Car', where the market reaches saturation point and demand declines.

The explosion in car numbers throughout the last century has been mainly driven by one generation: the Baby Boomers. The post-war period saw car numbers double every 10 years until the 1970s, when there was one car for every four people.

"To them the car was a status symbol, it was something to run out and get and talk to your friends about," says Monash University's Dr Alexa Delbosc, who is researching our changing attitudes to car ownership. For boomers, the car was both a necessity and a luxury, a symbol of adulthood and identity.

"For my parent's generation," says 27-year-old media professional Marcus Costello, "you turn 18 and as a kind of right of passage, your father gave you a car. You were becoming a man."

Increasing congestion on city roads, along with improved public transport, has made going without a car easier. New technology has also seen alternatives to ownership spring up.

"We started the first car share company with only three cars and 12 people, 11 years ago. And as of last month, there's over 50,000 people sharing 1,500 cars," says Bruce Jeffreys, the founder of GoGet Car-sharing, which operates in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Car-sharing represents a shift in the way we think about our cars. Instead of being an asset to own, they're a utility to call on. It's the Spotify approach to cars: a pay-by-the-hour subscription model.

"So instead of owning a car, you've got this tap of vehicles that you can use, and when you don't need one, you haven't got a car to worry about," says Mr Jeffreys.

If the biggest driver behind car sales was the Baby Boomers, then the decline can be placed squarely at the feet of another generation: the Millennials. Young people just aren't buying and driving cars at nearly the rate that their parents did.

"For the first time in recent history, young people are becoming less likely to go out and get a driver's licence, or get a car," says Dr Alexa Delbosc.

Will electric vehicles prove more enticing for young people? ( Jesse leary: ABC News )

In Victoria, the number of under 25s without a driver's licence has risen from 23 per cent to 35 per cent in just 10 years. In New South Wales, the proportion of young licensed drivers has fallen by around 1 per cent a year. The move to graduated licensing schemes, which make it harder for young drivers to get a full licence, may be a factor. But it's not the whole story, because the trend was in place before the licensing regimes were ratcheted up.

"It's happening in Australia, but it's also happening in America, Canada, the UK and in a lot of Europe," says Dr Delbosc. She believes a number of demographic and lifestyle shifts may be behind driving the change. "Young people are becoming less likely to go straight into full-time work, marriage, mortgage, children. Instead they're going to uni, maybe working part-time, travelling. And all of that means they have less need for a car, but also less money to pay for one."

It's a trend that Marcus Costello knows well: "So few of my friends actually own cars. A few of us have GoGet subscriptions and the rest of us are always relying on those people."

Like many in his generation, Marcus has a lifestyle and priorities that favour flexibility, travel, study and city-living. So when it came time to choosing a mode of transport, Marcus chose cycling instead of driving.

"Practically-speaking, owning a car doesn't make sense if you live in the inner-city," says Marcus. "There's the cost of registration, there's the cost of fuel, the cost of parking. These costs add up and I don't have to consider any of those."

With youth unemployment running at two times the national level, some say it's no wonder that young people aren't rushing out to buy a car. But Bruce Jeffreys thinks the decline is structural and not cyclical. He credits new technologies, like smartphones, for the shift.

"They are a real status symbol, and in some ways have replaced the car as a status symbol, for young people," says Mr Jeffreys. "I think the move away from car ownership is catching a lot of people by surprise, in particular, government."

It's also shocked the big car markers, who have struggled to attract young buyers.

"In America, in particular, carmakers are starting to panic about this change," says Dr Delbosc. "They're wondering why the next generation coming along isn't running out and buying their cars."

Car makers say that if they can build the right product and sell it in the right way, then young buyers will come flocking back.

"BMW is very conscious of the need to attract new customers to the brand, and we're going about that in a variety of ways," says Lenore Fletcher of BMW. Her company is trialling corporate car-sharing for businesses looking to avoid hefty fleet costs. They're also releasing a range of technology-rich models to entice young buyers, like the all-electric BMW i30.

"This vehicle is choc-full of technology and will really appeal to a younger market who are very in touch with connectivity," says Ms Fletcher.

But will any amount of smartphone integration, brightly coloured cars or snappy marketing jingles succeed in bringing Millennials back into the fold? If this trend continues, a substantial proportion of the Australian population will grow up never finding the need to own a car.

As a young driver living in the inner-city, I have often considered selling my car, booking the depreciation and getting around carless. But with parenthood on the cards, I can't quite see myself giving up the convenience of car ownership.

But even if we Millennials just delay our car purchases, instead of avoiding them altogether, the effects will be felt throughout the economy.

It presents a major problem for car makers, but a big opportunity for policymakers. Road transport in the OECD accounts for around 23 per cent of carbon emissions. As momentum builds to a binding global climate agreement in Paris next year, governments should be looking to encourage measures that will see emissions fall.

In Brisbane this weekend, the G20 agreed to a global growth target and a major ramp-up in infrastructure spending between now and 2030. Tony Abbott has pledged to make infrastructure a priority of his Prime Ministership, promising to "build the roads of the 21st century." While that aim is laudable, the question is: will today's drivers still need them, tomorrow?

Watch Mike Clay's report on declining car ownership tonight on ABC's The Drum and 7.30.

Mike Clay is a reporter and producer for The Drum TV. View his full profile here.