- Andreas Wolf, head of Continental Powertrain: Conservative attitudes must be considered when it comes to electric mobility
When it comes to choosing the engine type for their next car, motorists tend to stick to what they know. According to the 2018 Continental Mobility Study, three out of four motorists in Japan would choose the same type of engine as their current car. Only a quarter of respondents said they would consider a different type of engine. The tendency to stick to what you know is even more dramatic among motorists in the U.S.A., where 90 percent of respondents would opt for the same engine type again, whereas the figure is more than 80 percent in Germany and China.
32 % of Diesel drivers can imagine buying a car with a different engine type. © Continental AG
The drive system a person uses has no bearing on their willingness to change: Around 10 percent of motorists surveyed in China and Japan drove a hybrid vehicle or electric car. Over 80 percent of this group said they would remain loyal to electric drive concepts when buying a new car.
More than 80 % of people are not willing to change engine type. © Continental AG
“We deliberately chose open questions for our study and did not ask about specific power transmission technologies such as electric motors. The results clearly show that motorists tend to be conservative when choosing engine types and stick to what they know. This is something that must be considered in the drive toward electric mobility, along with long-standing concerns regarding vehicle range,” says Andreas Wolf, President of Continental’s Powertrain division.
24 % of Japanese motorists can imagine buying a car with a different engine type. © Continental AG
Germany is the only country with lots of diesel drivers
A considerable number of respondents drove a diesel car – around 30 percent in Germany alone. Around a third of these diesel drivers could see themselves switching to another type of engine, with 17 percent actually planning to do so.
Please click here for more information about the 2018 Mobility Study.