The market mechanism is a strange thing. Car manufacturers complained that they will not meet the voluntary goal of 140 grammes CO2 per kilometre in 2008, because customers keep asking for bigger cars. It is true that in recent years the customers were not very willing to buy green cars. But isn’t that really a chicken-and-egg problem?

In recent decades, the car industry has proved to be perfectly capable of creating new markets. For instance, who was really longing for spoilers or light-metal rims before these products were offered by the car industry? The market mechanism is a complicated game of suppliers and customers who are communicating through advertising, market surveys and of course the actual purchasing behaviour. But that behaviour can be influenced.

That is exactly what is happening now. Suddenly, car manufacturers are recognising an emerging market for green cars, which they want to be part of. This time, the market is not created by suppliers and customers alone, but authorities are pushing both parties towards a cleaner transport system in a carbon-constrained world.

I’m quite confident that in the coming years, advertisement campaigns from car manufacturers will make the green car a ‘sexy product’. New concepts will come into being, the research departments will be stimulated even more to develop them and the customers will buy them.

And maybe, in a few decades, it will be quite normal to envy your neighbour for his greener car. Not because it’s bigger.

Rolf de Vos

Chief Editor