2024-04-10 16:31:00
Car sales are picking up once more. The triumph of electric cars is still a long time coming, but hybrid models are now booming.
It’s a bit like “not fish, not meat” and hybrid cars have not yet been considered particularly sustainable because of their dual equipment of battery and combustion engine. There is also no longer a government bonus for them – like the 5,000 euros for private electric car purchases. Nevertheless, cars with gasoline hybrid drives that can travel 60 to 100 kilometers purely electrically are currently among the bestsellers in car dealerships.
“It’s almost the customers’ favorite car right now,” says the industry spokesman for vehicle dealers in the Chamber of Commerce, Klaus Edelsbrunner. He calls the boom in demand “typically Austrian”, his explanation: “Many customers are not yet confident regarding the electric car and with the hybrid as a middle ground, I have done everything: I drive electric in the city and do something for the environment “The engine provides security over land.”
The transition technology towards fully electric mobility is apparently currently considered the most attractive to Austrians. Alternative drives already account for 47.5 percent of new car registrations, an increase of 6.1 percent to 30,052 cars compared to the first quarter of 2023. However, only gasoline was able to increase from January to the end of March -Hybrid drives, with a significant increase of 19.5 percent to 15,814 cars. In comparison, pure electric cars (BEVs) recorded a decrease of 3.9 percent and had 10,802 new registrations in the first quarter.
According to Edelsbrunner, the increased demand for hybrid models also has to do with an increased supply. “There used to be only Toyota, but now all manufacturers also build hybrids,” explains the industry spokesman. In this way, the necessary capacity utilization in the factories will be achieved in the current e-car slump. The range extends from the “mild hybrid” with a smaller battery that charges while driving and does not need to be plugged in, to the classic plug-in model with electric ranges of up to 100 kilometers. Due to the lower fuel consumption, the NoVA (standard consumption tax) is correspondingly lower when purchasing. Depending on the model, a gasoline hybrid car is only two to five percent more expensive than a combustion engine, even without subsidies.
Edelsbrunner explains that manufacturers are currently offering many promotions to encourage people to buy: “There is more car advertising than there has been for a long time, even the combustion engine is back in the ads.” There are also cheap leasing offers once more.
After rather gloomy prospects last autumn, the industry is now confident that 2024 will be a good year for cars. With 63,263 new cars in the first quarter (plus 0.3 percent), they are still almost 22 percent below the pre-crisis quarter of 2019. “But things are going well at the moment, we are satisfied,” emphasizes Edelsbrunner. He sees the “long-term trend” – despite the current hybrid hype – “in electric cars”.
PV systems a turbo for electric cars?
Around 172,000 electric cars were registered in Austria at the end of March, around three percent of the car population. Andreas Reinhardt, chairman of the Federal Association for Electric Mobility Austria (BEÖ), estimates that 80 of these are company cars that are also used privately.
The current decline The number of new electric car registrations might have something to do with uncertainty regarding the planned evaluation of the EU ban on combustion engines, he suspects. He expects an increase of 20 to 30 percent for the year as a whole.
A boost for electric cars might bring the PV boom in the medium term. 400,000 solar power systems are installed on houses and businesses, 20 percent combined with
E-cars, estimates PV Austria. Households can increase their own consumption from 30 to 50 percent.
An analysis the Lower Austria Environmental Agency (eNu) shows a high correlation between the two. It is unclear which comes first, the PV system or electric cars. eNu boss Herbert Greisberger expects owners of PV systems to switch to electricity when they next buy a car.
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