WKÖ vehicle trade invited to a top-class event in Mondsee – openness to technology should ensure affordable mobility
Vienna (OTS) – “To put it figuratively, the road for motorized two-wheelers is getting narrower and narrower” – with these words Ferdinand O. Fischer, the re-elected spokesman of the specialist committee for two-wheelers in the WKÖ federal body for vehicle trade, opened the dealer conference that took place recently in Mondsee, and added that the Two-wheel trade will change, but will by no means disappear.
At this top-class business event, in which the majority of Austrian dealers took part, experts from a wide variety of specialist areas made contributions on a wide range of topics, in order to then discuss the current challenges of the two-wheeler trade with the dealers present.
Alexander Koprivnikar from the Federal Competition Authority and lawyer Peter Tyhri started with their respective presentations on antitrust law, the general and vertical block exemption regulation, the agency system and the consequences of the Peugeot judgment.
Attorney Stefan Adametz spoke in his interactive expert lecture regarding the warranty and the changes as of January 1st, 2022. Among other things, the focus was on the general obligations and claims arising from the warranty including deadlines, the new dealer recourse and the newly introduced update obligation (“update obligation”) for goods with digital content.
Then Ferdinand O. Fischer gave a lecture on numbers, data and trends in the two-wheeler trade. Among other things, the positive market development in the past year, the planned car ban in the first district of Vienna, the consequences of the Euro5+ regulations that will apply from 2025, the projected establishment of a battery replacement system, hydrogen technology and the future ban on combustion engines in Austria intended by politicians were discussed and the EU.
“Electric drive only makes sense as part of the mobility mix, but not as the sole and therefore no alternative technology. From today’s perspective, the future lies more in hydrogen. I therefore call for openness to technology and the approval of e-fuels so that combustion engines can also be approved following 2035,” said Fischer.
The managing director of the federal body for vehicle trade, Bianca Dvorak, also advocated openness to technology in her contribution to the discussion, following she had previously spoken regarding the current challenges in vehicle trade and the successes of the federal body, such as the introduction of the energy cost subsidy II, omission of the NoVA for moped vehicles of class L6e and digitization has spoken.
The federal committee sees e-mobility as a serious alternative in the field of mobility and welcomes it. However, the vehicle trade represents the point of view of a liberal openness to technology: This means that in addition to e-mobility, other sustainable and environmentally friendly types of drive must also be available. The combustion engine is still the most popular drive technology among consumers, and the majority of vehicles will still be equipped with combustion engines for a long time to come. It is important to be able to continue to use this stock economically. E-fuels therefore offer the most obvious solution for an environmentally friendly conversion. Openness to technology should ensure affordable individual mobility for every individual. (PWK069/DFS)
A photo by Ferdinand O. Fischer (photo credit: Alex List) for free use can be found here:
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