Doors open at 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show
Baku, September 13 (AZERTAC). “Future comes as standard” say the posters for the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show, so let us have a peek within and see what lies ahead. A load more cars, it appears from the blurb, with this already gargantuan biennial motor show pumped up like someone left the airline attached, the Telegraph reports.
This year`s show has over 20 per cent more exhibition space than in 2009, with a claimed 1,007 exhibitors from 32 countries and 89 world premieres. With the world`s population of cars recently touching one billion, the motor industry shows no sign of slaking its thirst to provide every man, woman and child on the planet with four wheels and a motor.
Quite what the future motor will be is still the subject of some debate. According to trade journal Ward`s, Chinese customers bought over half the new growth in last year`s market with sales of more than 13.8 million new passenger vehicles, yet Chinese car ownership at one car per 16 people is about half the global average. With Europe and North American sales in the doldrums, China and the other so-called BRIC countries of Russia, India and Brazil, are where most car makers are setting their sights. Yet there are questions about whether the Chinese will adopt the leap frogging technology of battery and hybrid electric vehicles - last year Toyota managed to sell just one Prius in the whole of China.
So for all the gleaming hybrid and battery concepts at Frankfurt, China, the world`s biggest and fastest growing market is buying sport utilities and plain old saloons and hatchbacks. Yet, with four small personal battery electric concept vehicles being launched at the show from Vauxhall/Opel, Volkswagen, KTM and Audi, perhaps the range/cost problems of batteries are being addressed by downsizing the car to suit the limitations of the technology. Similarly, the launch of the new VW Up! and Fiat Panda show there is life in the small, cheap-car philosophy, although at about £8,000 each, these cars are long way from the rumoured £4,000 or so cost of a European version of the Tata Nano. Cheap motoring is a highly elastic concept at Frankfurt.
Not that the British stars of the show are low cost. Jaguar`s C-X16 (catchy name guys) and Gerry McGovern`s second Land Rover Defender concept show a commitment to the future from JLR under Tata ownership, which we can only hope is continued after Carl-Peter Forster, the charismatic boss of Tata Motors, stepped down last week for personal reasons.
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