Large vehicle sales collapse extends to Europe, SUVs down 44% in 2008
By now we all know that the market for large trucks and SUVs has become a black hole for both U.S. and Japanese automakers here on this side of the Atlantic. It looks like the same holds true over on the continent where fuel prices have approached $10 a gallon in many places. Much like the U.S. market, sales of SUVs in Europe have dropped by 44.4 percent so far in 2008. Perhaps more worrying to companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW is that large cars have also dropped by nearly 30 percent. BMW already announced cutbacks earlier this summer to compensate as buyers rush to smaller cars, sales of which have climbed by almost 20 percent this year. Sales of cars like the Smart and MINI have never been better. Just as sales of SUVs propped up profits for Detroit automakers for years, the large premium cars have done the same for many European brands.
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gorr 8:23PM (9/15/2008)
If it continue like that we will be driving small inneficient and underpowered small little-box car made in china or india like their nano at premium price. I don't regret really these silly compagnies
like Gm, toyota, ford, bmw. They never admited having letting down hydrogen technologies for the right to keep their jobs. Western goverments are ruling more and more everything and they are ruling out any common sence on everything. Each and every persons that is not working directly for goverments related business have made 2-3 steps backward in the last couple of years. Things don't happen like that. It's a kind of plan like the germans had in the 1930's era but against theoric terrorists.
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 10:14PM (9/15/2008)
I think we've seen this year only the tip of the iceberg with the drop in SUV and "executive" car sales....
If you look at the figures, all of Europe (except Germany) have implemented CO2 based tax measures this year. However only in a few cases has a bonus/malus system been implemented. In most cases either the bonus or the malus has been introduced, but not both. These countries are set to catch up with the bonus/malus soon (except Germany) so you can expect these SUV drops to improve even further in future. Furthermore they have been achieved with still no signing of the EU accord on penalties for manufacturers of high-pollution vehicles (i.e. German companies). The German mafia groups have in 2007 and 2008 been very successful in swaying Bruxelles to their will, however that of lower car emissions is an urgent requirement which can't be stopped indefinitely......The EU has a legal obligation to lower its CO2 emissions, and popular outcry is today far outweighing the extremely powerful German mafia groups....
On the other hand the Italian and French carmakers (as well as the Japanese) have introduced a whole series of affordable small cars with mind-boggling emission and safety ratings, AS WELL AS very impressive engine horsepower. This is particularly the case with the latest generation of common rail engines such as the multijet (particularly the 1.3 and 1,8 engines), HDi and dCi engines.
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Andy 11:28PM (9/15/2008)
I thought the Italians had the Mafia.....
Don't Germans just put on a uniform march nicely?
stas peterson 5:24PM (9/27/2008)
Stop with the nonsense that Europe is a low emissions area. They are making a big deal about CO2 but the genuine pollution emisssions are backward and getting no better, anytime soon.
EU governments have diverted the populace with concern over a plant food trace gas, and totally neglected the NOx, SOx, HVOCs, and especially PMs, that actually do harm and kill people. The governments do that because they have convinced the people that a solution to Global Warmig is somekind of tax increase. As if giving money to the government idiots in any way, changes anything to do with Global Warming..
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 1:23AM (9/16/2008)
I guess that probably depends on what you mean by mafia... if one is thinking of the classical gangster films then surely the Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese etc are the most famous for this
however all that stuff is surely chicken feed if you are also including things like petrol, tobacco and drugs in the equation, which on a planetary scale are huge...
....and coming back to the car issue you also have things like:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/12/08/bmw-daimler-and-porsche-win-worst-eu-lobbying-award/
... where the Germans are certainly on their own...
as for the uniform march, it'sa dandy one indeed.
I'm not sure at exactly which age in Germany the "veeeee are ze bessst" and "ze zuperioren German teknologie-ya!!!" indoctrination begins for youngsters, but I strongly suspect it's around the prep school age. it sure as hell isn't something of the past (may the great Adolf be with us always...)
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Andy 7:58AM (9/16/2008)
Well ....Never mind those bully boy Daimler louts.... I'm getting me Lederhosen packed and I'm headed to Deutschland for some of that marching to music stuff.
Vosprung durch ... whatever.
Karl-Uwe Strunzen 1:24AM (9/16/2008)
I guess that probably depends on what you mean by mafia... if one is thinking of the classical gangster films then surely the Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese etc are the most famous for this
however all that stuff is surely chicken feed if you are also including things like petrol, tobacco and drugs in the equation, which on a planetary scale are huge...
....and coming back to the car issue you also have things like:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/12/08/bmw-daimler-and-porsche-win-worst-eu-lobbying-award/
... where the Germans are certainly on their own...
as for the uniform march, it'sa dandy one indeed.
I'm not sure at exactly which age in Germany the "veeeee are ze bessst" and "ze zuperioren German teknologie-ya!!!" indoctrination begins for youngsters, but I strongly suspect it's around the prep school age. it sure as hell isn't something of the past (may the great Adolf be with us always...)
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Nick 6:52AM (9/16/2008)
@gorr: The problem is that people don't exhibit any common sense by themselves, so governments have to nudge, cajole, or force them in the right direction. It is true that governments don't always get it right, but the alternative is no change in people's behaviour, except when encouraged through price pressure, which unfortunately doesn't always act in the way that is necessary for the good of society.
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Throwback 8:43AM (9/16/2008)
Nick I'll take my chances with individuals thank you. The idea that the "government" which I believe is made up of people, are the only ones who exhibit common sense is laughable.
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Nick 10:22AM (9/16/2008)
@Throwback: They're by no means the only ones who exhibit common sense, and, as I said in my comment, they don't always get things right, but governments do at least generally try and act in the common good, which is more than can be said for most people nowadays. Without government action we're fated to a world in which everyone acts in their own narrowly-perceived self-interest.
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Throwback 11:38AM (9/16/2008)
Alas, isn't that what governments do now, act in their narrow self interests? We are humans that's how we have survived for so long, by acting in our own narrow self interests. We can hope that any government would think about what is best for their citizens before acting. However, when governments get too big they tend to have too many competing interests and their resulting actions tend to be in the interest of a small dominant group.
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