Eco-consciousness and the Future of the German Car Market

September 6, 2008

Demand for environmentally friendly vehicles in Germany is rising sharply. Even if factors such as petrol consumption and CO2 emissions were not so important for German drivers even a few years ago, they are certainly much more of a priority now. In 2006, 95,000 motor vehicles were sold in Germany which due to their relatively low emission ratings might be classified as Ökoautos (eco- cars).

A study by B & D Forecast undertaken for the newspaper Welt Online confirmed that car makers in Germany were becoming increasingly attuned to the consumers burgeoning preference for environmentally friendly products. Obviously this has to be greeted as a positive development with the proviso that this desire to do good on the part of the customer is not exploited by a desire to make a fast buck on the part of the manufacturer. However the evidence suggests that the German consumer is very shrewd in this respect. For example, the VW Lupo is an example of a car that was marketed on the back of impeccable environmental credentials and low fuel consumption. But the entry model was never priced competitively at all and buyers stayed away in droves.

In 2009 serial production is planned for the Loremo LS. This revolutionary vehicle (a detailed overview can be found here http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loremo)
weighs under 600kg (half a tonne!) and boasts astonishingly low fuel consumption. However the clinching argument is hardly the space age appearance (in stark contrast to the pedetrian lines one might expect from your frumpy „green“ motor) or technological razzmatazz but the decidedly down to earth price tag. A planned entry model costs 15,000 Euro. And according to Süddeutsche Zeitung more than 15,000 concrete enquiries have been received. It might be expected that such an innovative project is the fruit of research undertaken in the labs of one of Germany’s major players in the Automarkt but in fact it’s all being headed by a small Munich based outfit.

Of course the research and development departments of all the major manufacturers are feverishly fine tuning their own Öko projects. Anybody stopping at their local petrol station will be under no illusions about the reason for this. The price of Sprit is only going one way. However, Professor Ferdinand Dudenhöfer, trend analyst at B & D Consultants, sounds a note of caution when he notes that the viability of Ökoautos is still very much connected to the price and running costs as well as from ability to deliver Fahrspass („driving pleasure“). It is only to be expected that a generation accustomed to racing up and down Autobahns for their daily commute has high expectations in this area! Prof. Dudenhöfers prognosis is that less ecologically sound models will be priced more expensively as a matter of policy whereas the sale of the „greener“ ones will be incentivised to stoke demand among the not-so-green masses. Of course another incentive suggest itself in the cheaper Autoversicherung or car insurance available for newer, greener cars. The best way of checking this out across the board is through an online Preisvergleich or price comparison site.

In any event it certainly seems to be the case that the rest of the world will be playing catch up Germany for some time in the auto sector in view of some of the quite outstanding and innovative models due to appear in the next few years.

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