Picture: This is how SUVs will end up soon (An art installation in Zurich by the Swiss artist Bob Gramsma).
If you visit Zurich you are forgiven to think that there must be a Porsche outlet in town: Porsche cars are everywhere! One reason for the many Porsche cars is that banks give car leasing to employees as perks. Five years of a bull market have made the banks and their employees rich and their wives proud owners of oversized and overpowered Porsche Cayenne SUVs (sport utility vehicles). But with the financial crisis in full bloom and restructuring in banks under way more and more Porsches are for sale on Bloomberg, a financial information provider. At the same time in the USA sales of Ford 150 trucks are down by almost 20 percent and SUVs almost 30 percent. I think we are seeing the first signs of an inflection point: big, powerful and expensive cars will go out of fashion in the next 12-18 months. Not only because many owners will not be able to pay for the lease rates, but also because often big cars mean bad manners and a high fuel consumption. The next big thing to show off will be the intelligent car. Have you never wondered why your IPhone is cleverer and more interactive than your car? I think the future of cars will be electric cars like the American sports car by the name of Tesla: it is fast, is much more energy efficient than a normal car and produces no fumes. Anyone in a big gas-guzzling SUV will soon look like a mutant Hulk!
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