Frankfurt  - When it comes to buying a new car, Germans favour frugal petrol or diesel-engined models with air-conditioning and a classy black paint job. Interest in electric cars is only minimal.

The results emerged from a survey by the Aral petrol company entitled "Car Buying Trends."

Only one in six drivers expressed interest in alternative power for cars such as electric propulsion or compressed natural gas. For most respondents fuel consumption and price were the decisive factors when choosing a new vehicle.

Black remains the favourite colour, chosen by 25 per cent, followed by silver. Creature comforts are in more demand than a few years ago and a majority said they would not buy a car without an anti-lock ABS braking system, air-conditioning and electrically-operated windows. Car anti-theft alarms were lower down on the list of priorities.

Electric cars were seen as a niche product and more than three-quarters of those asked in the survey said they would prefer to buy a car with a conventional petrol-driven or diesel engine. A third said they would consider an electric car although 77 per cent said they were not prepared to pay a surcharge of more than 2,000 euros (2,850 dollars) for a zero-emission vehicle.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has announced an action plan aimed at getting a million electric cars on the nation's roads by 2020. Experts from Greenpeace and other environmental lobby groups however have voiced scepticism.

Critics say that unless the electricity comes from renewable source, the increased level of carbon dioxide emissions from power stations could result in more CO2 pollution overall than with conventional diesel engines.

Fewer Germans than before are even interested in buying a new car. Around 18 per cent said they were mulling the idea compared to twice as many in 1999. Many motorists are keeping their cars longer and the average age of private cars in Germany has gone up to eight years.

The authors of the study said the credit squeeze was holding back many potential car buyers along with the impending expiry of Germany's successful scrappage scheme which unleashed a sales boom in recent months.

"The survey shows that the German car industry is a long way from having overcome the current crisis," said the experts from Aral which operates 2,500 filling stations in Germany. A total of 1,163 people were quizzed for the survey.

Volkswagen is one of the few German marques to have reported buoyant sales in recent months and 22 per cent said they planned to buy a model from the Wolfsburg-based marque - largely because of VW's image for frugality and value for money. Compared to previous years, interest in the products of beleaguered Opel and premium brands BMW, Audi and Mercedes has declined. (dpa)