New cars have – across fuel and powertrain – one tendency in common. They are getting bigger and heavier.
Lotus founder Colin Chapman would turn in his grave if he could see what the brand has become today. Namely, large, heavy electric cars.
But Lotus, who otherwise lived by the motto 'Simplify, then add lightness', are not the only ones who have gained weight in the last several years. Cars from the entire automotive industry have it.
In fact, several people in the German part of the industry now believe that weight has become a problem. The weight is largely due to battery packs in both hybrids and pure electric cars. The batteries are extremely heavy.
– The current range of electric cars in Germany has around 20 percent more weight, says Eric Haase, managing director of Jato Dynamics in Germany, to Mercedes-Fans .
READ ALSO: Sweden receives fierce criticism for selling diesel at DKK 11.
The brand with the highest average weight in Germany is not even German but rather Chinese. Volvo's models weigh an average of 2,139 kilograms on the German market.
Then comes Tesla with 2,015 kilos, because it will be German with Mercedes and 2,011 in third place. Porsche's cars weigh an average of 1,988 kilos, and we could go on like this.
A report from the also German ZDF shows that it is actually the cheap Romanian brand Dacia that has the slimmest model range in Germany. And yet the weight here too climbs over 1,260 kilos. To be precise, a German-registered Dacia weighs an average of 1,268 kilos.
It gets worse when you compare over time. In 2013, the average car in Germany weighed 1,475 kilograms. Ten years later, the average weight was 1,696 kilos.
However, it is not only the battery packs that make the cars heavier. There has also been more of the cars in general. The cars grow an average of one centimeter in width every two years.
– Cars have been getting wider for decades, and that trend will continue until we set a stricter limit. At the moment, the law allows new cars to be as wide as trucks, says James Nix, Vehicles Policy Manager at T&E.
Something that is particularly a problem here at home. The Danish parking spaces are not growing at all in step with the cars. On the contrary, more and more cities will close down the parking spaces, which are already far too small, to keep the cars away. Read more about it here .
However, the trend towards heavier cars is not a particularly German phenomenon. It is also present to that extent in Denmark. The most popular car in August was the electric Skoda Enyaq – a car that weighs up to 2,308 kilos.
Read more exciting news from and about the world of cars right here!
