Outside the big cities, the car is still the only real way to get around, and it has become too expensive to replace. For the first wave of the Nabel Mobility Tracker, we interviewed 138 people who travel by car or public transport every week, all of them in a voice interview with the Nabel agent.
BAROMETER
Can’t Afford It, Can’t Do Without ItTransport & automotive · France
Sept 2026 fieldwork · 138 respondents · 13 min median interview
They need the car, and it costs too much.
85%
find owning a car too expensive, 42% much too expensive. 53% say their monthly travel costs weigh heavily.
66%
won’t change cars in the next two years, 48% certainly not. 58% of their main cars were bought second-hand.
56%
rule out an electric car next time, put off by the price, the range and the lack of chargers near home. Only 14% say they certainly will go electric.
39%
trust none of the carmakers or operators we named. SNCF comes first, trusted most by 26%.
Fuel, yes, especially right now. On a small pension like mine, it’s outrageous. All these taxes the State puts on fuel… We drivers are cash cows.
Retired man, 55+, lives in the countryside, talking to the Nabel agent · quote translated from French, audio shortened
Methodology
Mainland France · 11–12 Sept 2026
138
respondents who make at least one trip a week by car, motorbike, public transport, ride-hailing or car-sharing
100
complete voice interviews with the Nabel agent, plus 38 partial ones kept question by question
13 min
median length of a complete interview
2 days
of fieldwork, respondents recruited from the PureSpectrum panel
Why they keep the old car, and what would make them go electric
The full report goes further. 29 pages, in French:
- 4 findings on car dependence, running costs, the switch to electric and trust in brands and data
- Drivers’ own words, transcribed word for word
- 3 recommended next steps, from a car-budget pressure index to a trust barometer of carmakers and operators
- Full methodology and sample limitations