The car, formerly the Germans’ favorite child, is increasingly being sidelined. Municipalities are working on concepts to make city centers car-free and more attractive for cyclists and pedestrians. The driver’s license, an absolute must for the boomer generation, plays an increasingly subordinate role for Gen Z. Is it getting gloomy for drivers in Germany? We looked at which cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants drivers can still expect the most service.
Gas stations and bank branches – closures continue
Bank branches and gas station networks have been most affected by closures in recent decades. Long gone are the times when every village had an insurance agency, a bank and of course the gas station with attached workshop. KA-Insider reported in May 2024 that all 815 Jet gas stations in Germany are for sale. It’s not much better for Shell. Across countries, Shell wants to close around 1,000 gas stations by 2026 and replace them with charging stations (Source: Auto-Motor-Sport).
The situation for auto repair shops, and thus for car owners, has also looked rather bleak in recent years. Nationwide, 218 of the businesses active in the automotive trade closed their garage doors in the first half of 2024, in 2023 it was 490 companies. The number of insolvencies in the automotive industry thus increased by 18.6 percent compared to 2022 (Source: statista).
The forecast made by the trade newspaper Automobilwoche in 2023 is not much more encouraging. The experts predict a 20 percent decline in independent workshops by 2030.
Our service analysis includes “everything around the car”, including parking spaces, local car insurance or driving schools. For the latter, the situation is somewhat unclear. On the one hand, they complain about a significant decline in driver’s license applicants. On the other hand, an analysis by Datapart-Factoring has shown the opposite. For the first half of 2024, 51 percent of the driving schools surveyed reported full capacity, but complained about increased costs and a shortage of driving instructors.
Drivers live best in Hamburg
Looking at the sum of all services and offers around the car, Hamburg is undoubtedly the German driver’s paradise, followed by Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Dresden and Cologne. After that, however, there is a significant cut in our car-friendliness rating. Hanover is in sixth place, almost three points behind. Munich, the seat of Germany’s luxury car maker BMW, only comes in last, in 15th place.
Hamburg offers 215,000 public parking spaces, in Frankfurt 18,000 parking spaces are available in 32 large parking garages. Munich has 7,400 parking garage spaces (Source: fertiggarageninfo) and an additional 14,000 P&R spaces (Source: parkundride).
What are the future prospects for drivers in German big cities?
Regardless of how car-friendly a big city is, the trend, not only in Germany, is towards greater relief for cities. However, a retreat of cars will also be accompanied by a retreat of the industries associated with motor vehicles. Thus, the forecasts for the closure of auto repair shops are certainly well-founded. The overall declining interest in driver’s licenses also contributes its part to a relief, and thus a decline in automobile-dependent economic sectors.
