Garagist Day: Cars mean fascination
FUTURE The car will continue to play an important role in mobility. AGVS President Thomas Hurter and the speakers at the Swiss Garage Day in the Kursaal Bern were convinced of this.
Around 850 participants were brought up to date by specialist speakers at the 17th Day of Garage Professionals, the largest and most important industry gathering in Switzerland. There are numerous problems facing the Swiss garage industry in connection with the current rapid changes in the automotive industry.
Technology bans are not a solution
Thomas Hurter, Central President of the AGVS (gallery left): "We are convinced that the car is not only fascinating in the past but also today and will be the most important means of transportation in the future. The AGVS also wants to support the political goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050, but we are not prepared to achieve this with technology bans and a one-sided focus. As around two thirds of all cars will still be powered by combustion engines in 2035, the solution is not just a rapid switch to electromobility. Continuous further development of the combustion engine is needed so that emission improvements are also possible in regions where electromobility will not become established for some time yet. Synthetic fuels are ideally suited for this because they can be produced in sunny and windy regions and then distributed all over the world."
Electric vehicles are cars without a soul
Motor pope and petrolhead Mario Illien (gallery, right) took part in the Garage Owners' Day as a speaker: "For me, an electric vehicle is a car without a soul. Europe is also on the wrong track and, after becoming dependent on Russia, is now slipping into dependence on China. I am in favor of building sensible cars. The current vehicles are too big and too heavy. We don't need 500 hp for our mobility. I see the solution in serial hybrid vehicles."
Agency models unsettle the industry
New sales models are an important topic in the automotive industry. With genuine and non-genuine agency models, car manufacturers want to gain more control over the entire supply chain right through to the end customer. The car buyer should draw up their purchase contract with the manufacturer and no longer with the dealer.
All agency models introduced so far have advantages and disadvantages for manufacturers and garages, but the lack of experience means that there is still a great deal of uncertainty in the automotive industry.
