Würzburg/Germany, 4 April 2007
It is German car manufacturers in particular who are lagging behind! The ongoing environmental debate is clearly leaving its mark on car buyers in Germany: people are moving away from powerful engines towards reductions in CO2 emissions. Which means that possibly a trend reversal is taking place here on the automobile market.
Just about one third of German drivers are of the opinion that Toyota makes particularly environmentally friendly cars. That puts Toyota well ahead of Volkswagen, Peugeot and Mercedes-Benz in the opinion polls. Environmental friendliness constitutes a “very important” selling point to nearly all buyers of new vehicles (95 percent). Buyers attach much less importance to cars having a powerful engine. And 83 percent would be prepared to spend more money on a car in return for a 20 percent lower emission of CO2. Moreover, 95 percent of those questioned in the opinion poll called for manufacturers to produce more environmentally friendly cars and agreed with the statement that: “We would long since have had far more environmentally friendly cars if the automobile industry had wanted it that way.” The ongoing public debate on CO2 emissions is therefore clearly making an impact. Admittedly, however, car drivers do not have any idea of the thresholds that are being planned in relation to CO2 emissions, nor do they know how much carbon dioxide their own cars actually emit.
These are the findings made by “Trend-Tacho”, a brand new analysis tool for the motor trade, which will appear in issue number 14 of our motor sector magazine, »kfz-betrieb«, that is due to go on sale on 5 April. The survey described was conducted by ABH Marketingservice and BBE Unternehmensberatung (management consultants), and 1,000 car drivers were randomly selected to take part in it. The work was commissioned by our motor sector magazine, »kfz-betrieb«, together with Santander Consumer Bank.
»kfz-betrieb« is published by Vogel Auto Media, Würzburg/Germany, and is the most widely read specialist magazine in the German car trade, celebrating its 95th anniversary in 2005 and fulfilling the role of official publication of the German vehicle trade association (ZDK), which represents the interests of over 40,000 car dealer businesses and repair garages.
If you have any queries, please feel free to contact:
Wolfgang Michel
Editor-in-Chief
Editorial office of »kfz-betrieb« – weekly journal & website
Vogel Auto Media
97064 Würzburg
Germany
Tel. +49 (0)931-418-2561
Fax +49 (0)931-418-2050
Email: wolfgang_michel@vogel-automedien.de
