The mixture of planned price increases and the cost explosion caused by the Ukraine crisis has changed the usage behavior of drivers. It is driven less and more slowly. The bicycle benefits – the e-car not necessarily.
The respondents therefore drive less cars, they drive more slowly and, if possible, do not drive long distances. This is shown by the results of the “Trend-Tacho”, which is collected for the testing organization KÜS and the specialist magazine Kfz-betrieb. To this end, around 1,000 car drivers were surveyed who are jointly responsible for car-related issues in their household.
“26% of those surveyed for the current Trend-Tacho leave it at two hours a week, 38% come to five hours. Only a quarter indicate a maximum of 10 hours per week, only 11% indicate vehicle use of more than 10 hours per week. In 2021, 47% of those surveyed said they could not imagine life without their own car at all,” reports KÜS.
The most important reason for the reduced car use is clear: half of those surveyed stated that the increased costs were primarily responsible for this. A mixture of politically desired additional costs – such as a steadily increasing CO2 tax on fuel – and special effects such as the Ukraine crisis have actually catapulted the cost of driving to a record high. “A third also states that they drive slower than usual for this reason even if there is no speed limit on a stretch,” KÜS continued.
One beneficiary of the cost crisis for motorists is the bicycle. One in three now wants to use it more than before. With 11 percent of those surveyed, however, only one in ten wants to get rid of their car altogether. Interestingly, what is actually the most obvious mobility alternative, local public transport, is losing people’s favor: Only 46 percent still see it as an alternative, compared to 56 percent for the Trend-Tacho 2020. Concepts such as car sharing also seem to play a role above all in “traffic turnaround” strategies in politics and among traffic researchers and less in the real world, because only 9% name car sharing as an alternative.
The car must fulfill the following tasks for the Germans:
The Trend-Tacho also looked into the extent to which electric cars can benefit from the exploding costs of petrol and diesel vehicles. At least according to this poll, it currently can’t really:
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Those surveyed estimated the average lifespan of an e-car battery at six years. At least one can say that this assessment does not correspond to reality, where at least the more established electric models such as those from Tesla, BMW or Smart have had a significantly longer service life. Some negative attitudes towards e-mobility are therefore rather impractical.
What is sobering, however, is the fact that e-cars are apparently difficult to sell without taxpayer money. “When buying an e-car or hybrid, it is crucial to be able to claim government subsidies. Without such a bonus, 57% reject the purchase of a hybrid, and 68% with a pure electric drive,” says the “Trend-Tacho”. The discussion about the billions in costs that e-mobility burdens taxpayers with various subsidies and tax breaks recently picked up new momentum with the EU’s announced ban on internal combustion engines.
