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Motorists love their cars but drive less |
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Tuesday, 18 November 2008 |
To cope with the rising costs of driving, motorists are doing
fewer kilometres. Nevertheless, they turned up in record
numbers to view the world famous Paris Auto Show. Beating
the 2006 record, 1.45 million visitors turned up to gaze
longingly at cars most of them will never be able to afford. The
stars of the show were the new ‘clean’ cars, either hybrid or allelectric.
More practically, there was a trend to smaller vehicles,
like the Toyota iQ, the Nissan Pixo, the new Ford Ka, or the
Alfa Romeo MiTo, all of which boast low consumption.
In the real world of day-to-day motoring, drivers face ever
higher costs. All up, the average French motorist spent €5,395
to run a car for a year in France in 2007. This figure includes
amortisation of the purchase price. The amount actually spent
has not risen since 2006 because kilometres driven have
dropped by 2.5% for petrol cars and 1% for diesels all over
France. The phenomenon is particularly apparent in the South-
West where spending actually fell in the Midi-Pyrénées,
Aquitaine and Languedoc-Roussillon. Initially the fall in
kilometres driven was triggered by the very high fuel prices.
Although fuel prices are now falling again, households are
staying prudent for fear of a recession. Although autoroute
operators are reluctant to reveal figures, the départements have
indicated that in some areas use of the autoroutes has dropped
by a massive 40%.
From an ecological point of view, the good news is that use
of public transport is up, thanks in part to a more flexible fare
structure on the railways.
The Paris Motor Show featured a massive demonstration
by Greenpeace against the most polluting of vehicles, mostly
German models. After President Nicolas Sarkozy’s
announcement at the Show that he will dedicate €400 million
to financing research into cars with low-carbon emissions, and
will push for Europe to give help to carmakers along this route,
the activist group criticised him for double-speak. They
pointed out that only a few days before, in Brussels, he had
been pushing for a compromise with his European allies on the
threshold being suggested for new cars. He was suggesting that
the figure required of new vehicles by 2012 should be an
average of 161 grammes of CO2 per kilometre, an amount
which is actually higher than the 2007 requirement of
158g/km.
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