The future – cars that charge while you sleep?

New study reveals consumer demand for greener vehicles

Hamburg und Rochester, NY – 18. September 2008 – A new study has uncovered significant consumer demand for energy efficient technology in the automotive sector.

Figures from the study, undertaken by global market research agency Harris Interactive, reveal that 20% of Europeans are very or extremely likely to purchase a vehicle that has plug-in hybrid technology, not taking into account estimated market prices.

The study revealed that 30% of consumers who are likely to purchase the plug-in hybrid technology in their next vehicle would expect to charge it at least once a day or more. Once the vehicle is plugged in, they would expect to charge it for around 5.1 hours. A similar study is the U.S showed that, in comparison, Americans would expect to charge their vehicle more than their European counterparts - 56% anticipated charging their car a least once day and for approximately 6 hours at a time.

Just the convenience of plugging in a vehicle every night instead of filling up at the petrol station every week is also very appealing to plug-in hybrid considerers, with 72% of respondents preferring the plug-in option. “It’s clear that people are open to this new approach of adding energy to the vehicle. The fact that drivers prefer to conduct this task daily, versus once a week shows real promise for the technology,” said Stephen A. Lovett, director of automotive and transportation research at Harris Interactive.

The study also highlighted that further consideration is needed for the infrastructure to support a population of plug-in hybrid vehicles. Among the European consumers polled, 21% of those who would consider buying a plug-in hybrid indicated that they currently park on the street when at home.

Lovett kommentiert, “While consumers are open to this technology, without major changes in infrastructure they will not be able to access the benefits of this technology. Our research has shown this needs to be addressed. Europeans tend to be quite open to technologies that contribute to additional efficiency in their vehicles. This is due to a combination of higher fuel costs, concentrated driving conditions and cultural differences which result in a greater interest in environmental protection.“.

In addition to the plug-in hybrid engine, Europeans also show significant interest in the Start-Stop-System¹ . Before market prices are brought into the equation, a quarter
27 % of all those surveyed also said that they would be very or extremely likely to purchase the Start-Stop System technology for their next vehicle.

Lovett commented, “Start-stop systems provide the greatest benefit in city driving environments. With Europe’s higher density and higher penetration of manual transmissions, the mindset progression to this type of system is more natural than in the US’s more automatic dominated, highway cruising landscape. This has been recognized by BMW, which has begun equipping many of it’s European models with such systems”