Many Germans
claim its important
to cut back on
CO2 emissions,
and install
green energy
production
systems.
But Germans
are not setting
a great example
for the rest
of the world.
They travel
to exotic places
or vacation on
luxury cruise
ships.
They drive kids
to school in the
family SUV
when it rains.
Germans love SUVs.
Spiegel Online
reports that a
two decade trend
of buying higher
horsepower
vehicles continues.
Auto trend expert
Ferdinand Dudenhöffer,
who headed the CAR
Institute study,
“does not believe
the trend towards
more and more
performance
is reversing”,
Spiegel reports.
“Only once
in the past 25 years
has the number
of horsepower
of new cars
declined,”
Dudenhöffer told
German daily “Welt”.
Spiegel reports:
“According to a survey
by the CAR Institute
at the University of
Duisburg-Essen,
the 3.61 million
newly registered
cars last year
had an average
of 158 hp
under the hood –
five hp more
than a year earlier
and the
tenth increase
in a row.”
This development,
Spiegel reports,
“was driven
by the trends
towards
heavy SUVs
and powerful
plug-in hybrid
drives.
Newly
registered
SUVs
had an
average
of 172 hp”
and they
“accounted for
around 33%
of all new car
registrations
in 2019.”
For hybrid cars,
Spiegel writes the
“average power
even reached
194 hp”.