German Cars Break Sound Barrier

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

For the first time in recorded history, Germany has more than 50m motor vehicles (all kinds) on its roads, Autobahns, and “Staus” (traffic jams.) This according to a report released by the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt, the friendly folks who keep helpful statistics of everything car-related in Germany, in addition to the brownie-points you rack up when driving above the allegedly non-existent speed limit, and gosh, maybe with your “Handy” by your ear.

With a population of 82m, this brings the motor vehicle density in Deutschland to more than 600 per thousand pop. A respectable number, but still a far cry from the more than 800 per thousand in the U.S.A. The report reveals more useful (or not) numbers:

There are still 25,000 East German Trabants on the roads. Women are now registered owners of 32.4 percent of all cars on Germany’s roads (not that car dealers had noticed.)

From a purely statistical standpoint, last year’s giant fleet renewal project, a.k.a. Abwrackprämie, had little effect: The average age of the car in Germany sunk from 8.2 years in the previous year to 8.1 years in 2009. Volkswagen rules the road in Germany with 8.8m cars, followed by Opel with 5.3m, and Mercedes with 3.8m. See why both Winterkorn and Dr. Z are against government aid for Opel? For deep data divers, Deutschland dept., the KBA page is a treasure trove of information. Some German required.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Contrarian Contrarian on Feb 18, 2010

    "With a population of 82m, this brings the motor vehicle density in Deutschland to more than 600 per thousand pop. A respectable number, but still a far cry from the more than 800 per thousand in the U.S.A." I think more useful and telling statistics would be "cars per square mile" or "cars per mile" of road. Germany is tiny compared the the USA and they have less room for cars.

    • Bertel Schmitt Bertel Schmitt on Feb 18, 2010

      Contrarian: I could, but it would be meaningless. The accepted metric in the industry to measure market potential and market saturation is units per thousand pop. You need buyers to sell cars to. If the metric would be square miles, then the next growth market would be Mongolia. It has the size of Alaska, and a population of 2.6 million. Germany may be tiny compared to the USA. However, its 82 million people bought 3.8 million cars last year, whereas the 308 million people of the USA bought 10.4 million cars. Russia, by far the largest country in the world, with a lot of room for cars, bought 1.46 million units. Canada, the largest country in the Americas, also bought 1.46 million units.

  • Crash sled Crash sled on Feb 18, 2010

    It was pretty funny, but I stopped counting how many times that guy broke the law during that video. The orange vests are a good idea though. So many happy people, nothing like the staus I get into over here! Very fine roadwork, too. The requisite hot chick footage. No jalopies that I could spot. A very interesting slice of life.

  • Accs Accs on Feb 18, 2010

    Yes, could somebody please clue me in to what is being said. The Peugeot has is either the 307CC, 207CC or the 308CC. Nice interior. Only recent Peugeot that Ive seen in pics, that Id actually happy to drive. Something about gaping MAW that just draws me in. (Without doing research first.) Also nice to see the E Class Benz from about 5-10yrs ago as a wagon. Damn nice! -- AND WITH 3 KIDS!

  • John Fritz John Fritz on Feb 18, 2010

    I work with a German expat in our R&D department so I asked him to come and translate the vid for me. Funny stuff to begin with. Half again as funny because of my buddy translating it.

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