The Madrid town with 83 residents where each inhabitant is allocated 50 cars.

The high concentration of cars in the city of Madrid is staggering, with thousands of vehicles circulating in the Spanish capital 24 hours a day. However, although it may seem completely implausible, there is one part of the autonomous community with much more outrageous population and vehicle figures, and it's nowhere near the city's metropolitan area.

To find it, you have to travel an hour and a half by road from Madrid. In the north of the region, bordering Castilla-La Mancha, lies the village of La Hiruela, one of the most beautiful in Spain. Besides being known for the beauty of its streets, it also stands out for the large number of registered cars. It only has 83 inhabitants, according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), but each one is "allocated" to about 50 vehicles. How is that possible?

La Hiruela, a tax haven for vehicle registration

The reason for this curious situation is the well-known Tax on Mechanically Propelled Vehicles (IVTM), which contributed around €4 billion to the state coffers, according to the European Motorists' Association (AEA). This tax is not the same in all areas of Spain, and while there are already notable differences between provincial capitals, the inequality between large cities and small towns is even greater.

Registering a car in one location or another can make up to 900% of the difference, which is why many car rental and leasing companies seek to register their vehicles in a location where the tax is as low as possible. Hence, the small town of La Hiruela, where the rate is much lower than in other areas of Madrid, has so many registered cars.

There are almost 4,200 registered cars in the town of Madrid, meaning that each of the town's 83 inhabitants has around fifty vehicles. The number of registrations has increased exponentially in recent years, as more and more companies in the sector are seeking out these tax havens for their automobiles, hence the peculiar situations such as those in La Hiruela.

However, this town is not the only one in the Madrid region where this situation is occurring: in Rozas de Puerto Real, located in the southwest of the region, there are around 580 residents and more than 24,400 registered cars (about 42 per resident), while each of the 600 people who live in Patones are allocated more than 23 vehicles, as there are 14,000 registered cars.