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The Week in Germany: Business, Technology and the Environment

August 31, 2007

Green Machines: Frankfurt Car Show to Address Climate Concerns

The 2007 Frankfurt International Motor Show opens next month with the challenges facing the global car industry as a result of climate change having emerged as the trade fair's key theme, German Association of the Automotive Industry President Matthias Wissmann said on Monday (August 27).

Drawing on the motor show's motto "See What's Driving the Future," Wissmann told a press conference in Berlin that the trade fair would seek to promote the idea of what he called "lasting mobility".

While not billed per se as a "green fair", the 10-day car fest will showcase the latest advances and the competition generated in the auto industry aimed at addressing the threat posed by global warming, he added.

Frankfurt, said Wissmann, would be "a stage for the political discussion".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will open the event on Sept. 13. It will feature some 1,046 exhibitors representing over 40 nations. Carmakers are moreover expected to unveil 88 world premiere models at the trade fair. At the last Frankfurt motor show in 2005, 1,041 exhibitors set up shop at the fair.

Wissmann, however, added that Frankfurt will also show "that there is no ideal solution to reducing (greenhouse gas) emissions". The motor show, moreover, "will demonstrate that the German carmakers offer efficient models in every segment," he said.

Frankfurt is also expecting an increase this year in the number of car components' companies represented at the motor show.

Among the cornucopia of special events taking place throughout the motor show, which concludes on Sept. 23, are an India Day, a German-Mexican Cooperation Day, a focus on IT as an engine of growth in the automotive industry and an analysis of environmental protection for fleets. (TWIG/dpa)

Links:

Frankfurt International Motor Show

More about the green machines to be shown in Frankfurt

"Herbie's Grandchild": VW Planning Successor to New Beetle for 2009 (TWIG, August 3, 2007)

Porsche Goes Green with Hybrid Version of Cayenne (TWIG, July 27, 2007)

The Car of the Future (TWIG, July 13, 2007)

German Car Roundup (TWIG, March 30, 2007)

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