Until recently, popular wisdom had it that Germans would rather not eat than give up their cars. According to lore, Germans even eschew back seat loving – because it might spoil the immaculate interior. Horrors of horrors: The Teutonic automotive love affair may be losing its lust. Nearly one third of Germans contemplate getting rid of at least one of their cars in the next six to twelve months. This according to a study commissioned by Europcar, a large European car rental company that has a vested interest in these developments. The shocking study has been published in Das Autohaus.
Last year, only 17 percent of the Germans had announced they would dump their cars and switch to public transportation, car sharing, rental cars, or mopeds. Never mind that they didn’t follow through. According to the ever so efficient Kraftfahrtbundesamt, Germans bought 26.1 percent more cars in the first nine months of 2009 than in 2008. Sales of used cars dropped by only 1.6 percent. Europcar hopes that a new trend is their friend: All indications say the German Abwrackprämien-powered sales orgy is about to experience a sudden interuptus in October after the financial lube has dried up. But a third of German cars being retired and not replaced next year? A rental car company’s wet dream.
The German cash for clunkers was always going to end in tears. It created a demand which wasn’t really there.
Also, Germans (or anyone for that matter) moving out of their car and into public transport, walking or cycling is a good thing. Less pollution cleaner air for everyone and more to go around. I really don’t get people who argue for or against global warming. It doesn’t really matter. As a race, we all should be consuming fewer resources and it’s rather sad that it takes a “boogeyman” like global warming to shake us into action. You don’t go into your kitchen and eat the entire contents because “you can always buy more”; you consume enough until the next time. So why take more of the Earth’s resources than you need?
According to a recent study there are already 9 million households (23%) in Germany without a car. So, rental car companies might make their wet dreams come true.
Here in the U.S. a growing number of teens could give a rip about getting a driver’s license. This is exactly oposite of my experience when everyone would KILL to get one.
I considered selling a couple of cars, just keep one and rent whatever is needed when needed (very seldom), but in the US (unlike in EU or South America) I would never consider public transportation.
No-one should be surprised.
“…demographic changes in Germany and the increased probability of more scarce and definitely more expensive oil resources, further stagnation of passenger traffic demand appears imminent (Zumkeller et al. 2007). Moreover, most German cities have implemented strategies of expanding and improving pedestrian, bicycling and public transport alternatives simultaneously with restricting car use (Pucher 1998).”
From one of my favourite journals; Transportation.
Light reading for all.
It is interesting to see how people’s views on cars are changing, in countries around the world.
I can confirm CarPerson’s observation about teens in the United States. My 17-year-old son has no interest in a driver’s license for now. He says about half of his classmates are the same.
In Japan (my wife is Japanese), younger people seem less interested in cars. Older people (retired age) too. They have become a luxury for most, and more trouble than they are worth.
(I lived in Japan for nine years and never owned a car. I had a motorcycle, but that was just for pleasure, not transportation.)
So the US and Japan seem, by my observation, to be changing. If the Germans’ attitudes are also changing, I would not be surprised.
«According to a recent study there are already 9 million households (23%) in Germany without a car»
Germans on average are around 25% poorer than US-persons. In addition, gas taxes over there are horrendous.
Not surprising that a lot of them simply cannot afford a car.
Source: purchasing power parity per capita:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
My daughter and her fiance, both 30 and with entirely different jobs that often “require” two cars in San Francisco, just decided to give up their Audi Avant and keep the Civic. They’ll use Zipcar when they absolutely, positively need a second car, so it is happening.
Here at home in the country, their two parents have two Porsches and a Volvo wagon, and I think we’re the clueless ones.
1) Public transportation has always been excellent in Germany and mostly throughout Europe. That is, you can actually go somewhere from somewhere, quickly or slowly depending on your needs. So if there is some shift to it during a time of economic downturn, it isn’t as earthshaking news as we might imagine. Here in the US public transportation is mostly a city bus or a monorail to nowhere.
2) Population increases have congested roads, and makes public transportation less of a daily nuisance than private transportation.
3) Getting a driver’s license and insuring a car is wildly ( some are obviously seeing prohibitively ) expensive in Germany.
Still, this does not spell the end of the automobile in Germany or any part of Europe, rather it reflects the economic reality and the obscene tax rates.
According to a recent study there are already 9 million households (23%) in Germany without a car.
That study needs to be taken with a big grain of salt. According to the same study, no cars is mostly a choice of the “one person households.”
In German households with 4 and more people, 96% have a car. In 2006, 38.8 % of the households were one person households, 33.6% were two person households.
43% of the single person households have no car. Why? 70% of the Germans who receive welfare benefits live in single person households.
I think part of the reason kids in America don’t seem in a hurry to get thier licenses is that these days, Mommy and Daddy are more than willing to cart the little darlings around. Heaven forbid that little darling is out of their sight in the world full of (media overblown) child molesters.
When I was a kid (I’m 40 now), if I wanted or needed to get somewhere I had two choices: walk, or bicycle. Or don’t go. Fun during the winter in Maine. Mom and Dad sure weren’t going to give me a ride, they were busy working. Needless to say, I got my license at age 17.
it is certainly possible to do without a car in Germany or San Francisco(!). I think I would rather own a car in NYC than San Francisco. Not much chance of it in rural Maine or Montana.
Wow, after seeing Bertel Schmitt and others demolish the “abandoning cars” study “conclusion”…
… it is clear all it was greenie wishful thinking, PR pap.