The car remains a status symbol

The car remains a status symbol

For a majority (54 percent) of younger drivers in Germany (up to 34 years of age), the car has the status of a status symbol. This is a central finding of the representative mobility study that the market research institute infas carried out on behalf of Continental in Germany, China, France, Japan and the USA in August 2024. For this purpose, 1,000 people aged 18 and over in Germany, among others, were surveyed about their mobility needs. According to a study from 2017, only 25 percent of younger respondents said that the car was a status symbol.

According to the current study, it is important for 84 percent of respondents to own a car, regardless of age. For almost 90 percent, it is a must for shopping and other errands. The majority of young people in particular are enthusiastic about technological progress in cars and are looking forward to the new employment opportunities such as reading, playing or working that self-driving cars will offer in the future (51 percent of 25 to 34 year olds). In addition to autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of digital voice assistants is very popular with them. A comparable response can be seen in the four other countries surveyed in the study. "The results show that the response to new technologies such as automated driving, large displays and AI in cars is sometimes very different between generations and also when comparing countries. Therefore, our developments are aimed at specifically tailored solutions - market-specific, tailor-made and modular," says Continental board member Philipp von Hirschheydt, responsible for the Automotive division, classifying the survey results.

The study results also illustrate the status quo in the development towards lower-emission mobility worldwide. What is particularly clear here is that acceptance of purely electrically powered cars is currently still low. In this country, three percent of all car owners have an electric car. Nevertheless, in Germany, just over a third of those surveyed who do not yet own an electric vehicle still believe that their next car will be a purely electric car (39 percent, compared to 2022: 34 percent). On the other hand, the high level of popularity for hybrid drives is noticeable across countries. In Germany (48 percent) and the USA (47 percent), almost half of those surveyed without an electric car can imagine buying a vehicle with a combination of combustion engine and electric motor next. In China, almost nine out of ten respondents (86 percent) already do so. This brings with it the chance that hybrid cars will increasingly build a bridge to e-mobility and give it new impetus. In Germany, younger people between the ages of 25 and 34 are particularly interested in electric cars, with a share of 68 percent - even in international comparison.