Consumers to blame for lack of hybrid success
In what could be seen as either refreshing honesty or the gloom-mongering voice of vested interests, one of the leading lights of Germany's automotive industry says that consumers are to blame for the relative lack of success of hybrid cars in Germany and the EU.
This new Mercedes owner has just disrupted the German car industry. And he knows it.
Henning Wallentowitz, chairman of the Institute for Automotive Engineering (IKA) at RWTH university in Aachen, said in an interview with international German media channel Deutsche Welle, that it is consumers who are holding up the pace of further developments in sustainable cars.
Still no market
During the interview, which took place ahead of the Detroit Motor Show which opens on Friday 19th January 2008, Herr Wallentowitz says that although the IKA made the first Ford hybrid in 1993, which it gave to America, “the market was not there to sell hybrids. Not just in Germany, but in all of Europe. There is still no market.”
He goes on to explain that, “the problem with hybrids is you have more weight, and you have a battery in the car. And battery technology is still not developed enough…”
Disaster
Wallentowitz concludes: “In the end you have to wonder how many people will really buy a hybrid. In Germany, car makers already tried "eco-cars" five years ago: the Eco Golf and the Eco Polo (from Volkswagen). They had three-litre fuel consumption. But it wasn't a success, it was a disaster. They didn't sell. The cars were more expensive, there was more technological equipment needed, and the customers didn't like it. And they weren't powerful enough. People will want cars that behave in the same way as their old cars, and won't accept any changes.”
Which is presumably the perfect excuse for Germany’s auto manufacturers to continue churning out gas-guzzling heavyweights.
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Hybrids not as good as the hype
Ian
Thursday 10 July 2008