How Germans imagine their dream car

More technical finesse or practical functionality? Germans have clear ideas about the car of the future, as a survey by mobile.de shows.

K.I.T.T. from "Knight Rider" and the DeLorean DMC-12 from "Back to the Future" already demonstrated this on the big screen decades ago: This is how futuristic people imagined the cars of the future to be. Today, drivers consider futuristic features such as particularly large displays, digital displays, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving to be desirable in principle - but of secondary importance.

Instead, other aspects play a particularly important role for the majority of drivers: 55.9 percent of those surveyed would like to see fewer exhaust gases, 54.1 percent would like to see fewer traffic accidents, and 50.7 percent would like to see more environmentally friendly production and use of materials. For almost one in two (47.5 percent), the car of the future must be equipped with engines that are completely emission-free and environmentally friendly. Space in the car, equipment and comfort, on the other hand, are less important criteria for those surveyed.

In terms of the drive system of the future, almost a third (32.0 percent) are in favor of hydrogen. This is followed by electric drive (14.8 percent), gasoline (13.9 percent), hybrid (11.5 percent) and diesel (5.8 percent). In contrast, only 1.8 percent of respondents favored gas (CNG/LPG). Particularly with regard to the question of the preferred type of drive, however, it should be borne in mind that the representative survey polled a cross-section of the population - the respondents therefore do not necessarily have in-depth technical expertise.

More displays, less autonomous driving

Asked about the cinematic role models, respondents expressed clear ideas about what technical features the car of the future should have: Almost one in three (30.6 percent) would like to see large displays and digital readouts, while one in five (19.8 percent) find a large, safe panoramic roof attractive for more views. Almost one in five (18.9 percent) is in favor of artificial intelligence that understands, interacts and can act autonomously. After all, 17.2 percent can imagine autonomous driving in the future and thus doing without a dashboard in the vehicle.

Game consoles do not belong in the car

Switch on the Playstation and play a game in a traffic jam: So far, that hasn't gone down too well with German drivers: More than half (54.9 percent) are critical of an interface for game consoles in the vehicle and think that such a thing does not belong in the car. Particularly little value is placed on sound bubbles in which music can be listened to individually (7.6 percent) and on an integration of social media channels on all displays (6.7 percent). An automatic paint color change option, such as recently introduced by BMW, is attractive to 8.6 percent of the drivers surveyed.

Car ownership in the future

Most of the motorists surveyed (38.4 percent) want to buy their car outright in the future and own it immediately. For more than one in ten (12.5 percent), financing with subsequent ownership of the vehicle is an option. 8.6 percent can imagine renting their future car as part of a monthly subscription and thus being able to switch flexibly at any time. 5.0 percent of the drivers surveyed are not happy with any current form of car use and would like new options.

The data used by mobile.de is based on an online survey by YouGov Germany in which 2,064 people, including 1,755 driving license holders, took part between February 4, 2022 and February 7, 2022. The results were weighted and are representative of the German population aged 18 and over.