Do Millenials still want to own a car?
A lot has been written about Millenials (those of us born between 1981 and 1996) and their habits — including their supposed reluctance of purchasing and owning a car, which could be seen as a threat to the mobility industry. During the past week, we were hence following the question of how millennials perceive owning a car vs. using the car as a mode of transportation. Surprisingly, we noted that for young adults, aspiring a car ownership didn’t change much from the 50s and 60s to 2012 in the data we found.
In fact, a report of German respondents aged between 18 and 29 years, stated in 2012 that 73% of the respondents expected to own a personal car within the next ten years and see owning a car as a status symbol still.
Ubiquity of possibilities
However, since 2012 a ubiquity of new mobility services arose in Germany and changed consumer behavior of getting from A to B drastically — especially in cities and densely populated areas. To name just a few of them think of how Uber (German launch in 2013), Coup (launched in 2016), BVG’s Berlkönig (launched early 2018) or the expected market entry of kickback scooters in early 2019 are changing and shaping the mobility landscape.
On the other hand in rural areas, people cannot find such a broad supply of transport modes and might therefore still stick to owning a personal car.
A car is better than my car — is it?
Alongside with different mobility modes entering the market, there is no prerequisite anymore to own a personal car in order to maneuver around cities. Now, this leads to another hypothesis. The millennial who’s always facing his own FOMO (fear of missing out) does not see car ownership as a status symbol anymore but rather sees mobility as a status symbol.
Using Uber (private chauffeur) instead of relying on public transport schedules to get from A to B might be perceived as a luxury.
Taking a scooter during summer instead of biking might convey a feeling of freedom. Being able to choose which brand to drive on each day offers a new set of opportunities.
I want to be ‘Öko’.
The car’s time as a status symbol with the strongest possible engine seems to be coming to an end. “Öko” is the new cool. 49% are proud of driving an environmental-friendly car, and 76% would like to drive an eco-friendly car. Companies such as Tesla are successfully riding that wave (Market Cap as of Dec 11, 2018, in USD: 62.98b, BMW: 53.17b, Daimler: 56.77b).
Millenials + Car Ownership = Status Symbol?
So, is owning a car still a status symbol for millennials? We found arguments both for and against the question to be discussed and could not come to a bulletproof conclusion.
Yes, combining the three above mentioned trends, the common sense when talking about car ownership in the future is that it will be disrupted. And indeed, market research shows strong evidence that private car ownership will drop by 80% by 2030 in the US (247m vehicles in 2020 to 44m in 2030).
But, numbers are talking differently for Germany. Car approvals especially in Germany and Europe are pretty constant and tend to increase. At least in Germany owning a car is still a status symbol and plays a significant role in people’s self-realization. Nearly half of the people aged between 18 and 38 see a private car as a must-have and are planning to own a car in the next ten years. 65% of the German millennials say mobility means freedom. 73% define mobility as independence.
It seems, that car ownership as a status symbol didn’t change much for German millenials up until now. There’s a lot more wrapped up in vehicle ownership than rational economic decision making. Cars define status, provide convenience and transportation, can be used as vacation vehicles and are seen as fashion accessories to name just a few. But …
How will Autonomous Vehicles influence these trends?
Will personal ownership still play a role or will AVs always be shared services?Check out our Newsletter #5 and let’s see what the future will bring.
