STUTTGART/BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The German Association of Cities has criticized the trend toward large cars and brought higher parking fees for SUVs and other large cars into play. "The trend in cars apparently knows only one direction: bigger and bigger, heavier and heavier," chief executive Helmut Dedy told the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspapers (Tuesday). "This does not fit into a time when we are discussing energy and land conservation, climate and resource protection." For more quality of life in cities, he said, fewer cars are needed, not even bigger ones.

Dedy called it "obvious to also assign the actual costs for parking and driving to the large vehicles." On the other hand, there is something absurd about enlarging parking spaces or converting parking garages to accommodate the growing number of SUVs. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, SUVs would account for the largest share of the 2.65 million new registrations in 2022, at just under 30 percent./dhu/DP/stk