I sat last night....watching the late news via ARD (Germany's public network, Channel One), and this piece came on about German cars and consumers, with the reporter wanting you to know that every year.....more and more 'large' vehicles arrive, and this is a very bad thing.
I'm pretty much maxed out on skepticism now, and viewed the report with negativity.
Sales of large German-made vehicles? Oh I agree....they are selling with no problems at all. SUV sales are going through the roof presently in Germany (like the Audi Q3 and Q5).
Here's the thing that you need think about. In 1969 (fifty years ago), Germany had the major producers of Ford, Opel, VW, Porsche, BMW, Audi and Mercedes. They were all making some light vehicles....but the bulk were heavy ones, with large cubic-sized engines, limited protection built into the cars, getting lousy gas mileage, and producing decent to extreme horsepower.
So what's happened since 1969? You have cars made extremely light, smaller-sized engines with turbo-power, a lot more protection built into them, great gas mileage, and large bulky frames. Today, you can have a 190 horsepower engine, getting twice the mileage of the 1969 vehicle....mostly because of advancements in the engines, and the lighter material used for cars. Add to it.....huge advancements in clean fuel 'burn', and a lot less pollution.
Any of this understood by the news media or environmentalists? No.
In fact, if you go and examine the battery requirements for the newer Audi SUV....you need a large bulky vehicle to hold the battery 'racks'. It wouldn't surprise me if you start seeing cars the size of the old Ford LTD (1960s and 1970s)....large and bulky.....in order to hold extra batteries, and give you superior range. Will the same news journalists get all hyper about size of these vehicles? More than likely.
They all seem to think that little cars....are the path to the 'future'. Its just that you aren't that sure what the future really means.
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