Motor emissions could have fallen by over 30% without SUV trend, report says
Motor emissions could have fallen by over 30% without SUV trend, report says
Global fall averaged 4.2% between 2010 and 2022 but would have been far more if vehicle sizes stayed same
Not surprising since car manufacturers lobbied to get them classed as light trucks to dodge the stricter emissions and safety regulations that apply to general cars. Then marketed the hell out of them as there is more profit to be made due to them not needing to comply with as many regulations. And now they are everywhere and are way worst than cars in almost every way.
Funny how yet again the capitalist class chooses profits over any other metric leading to s shittier world overall. Almost like there is a pattern happening in every industry...
BUT THA SAYFTEE OF MAH FERMLEEE
I heard a man once say, no shit, no kidding, that he bought his wife the biggest vehicle they could afford because she was a bad driver.
I knew a lady involved in a rollover accident in one of those old, flawed Ford Explorers back in the day. When she recovered, her solution to deal with her trauma and make herself feel safer on the road was...to buy an even bigger SUV with an even higher center of gravity.
The irony is that I have seen news articles about parents killing their own kids while taking their SUV out of the driveway. And yes, they had bought those because it was "safe" for the kids. The following is just one example you can find many more on the internet.
And unfortunately there's plenty of truth to this at least for those inside the vehicles. Driving my tiny hatchback in Texas can be really scary some days, the lifted trucks in particular have TERRIBLE visibility and simply can't see sedans. Their headlights are often higher than the roof of most sedans. It's so selfish and makes driving a worse experience for everyone else, propagating them too to get a massive light truck/SUV.
My parents recently sold their sedan for a SUV soley for the added safety and I honestly understand where they're coming from. If I didn't trust my reaction times as well as I do I'd want the same thing despite it making the roads less safe for others in the process.
Unpopular opinion: For more than 90% of the population a car with an Otto engine volume of less than 1.5l is enough. Anuthing above should be taxed heavily.
Cars should be taxed proportional to the fourth power of their kerb weight, in line with the road wear they cause.
Popular opinion with me
I've been a fan of little, simple vehicles for a while now. I have had a Geo Metro, Mitsubishi Mirage, and now I have a Suzuki Samurai. In all of these vehicles, I have had to deal with the same issue, when trying to get up to speed: The slowpokes in front of me. No matter how slow I go in my 65 hp little SUV, I end up waiting on someone in a much faster vehicle to get out of the way.
I drive a Prius and agree completely. It's fuel efficient and extremely utilitarian. I can fit ten foot lumber in it, or my two big stupid dogs and our luggage for trips. Even when my wife drives like a maniac, we still get around 45 mpg. We typically end up passing slow moving vehicles on freeway on ramps, despite it having a maximum acceleration of 0-60 mph in about 10 seconds.
a loophole in the cafe standards says the longer the wheelbase the less the fuel economy has to be and the manufacturers find it more cost effective to make bigger vehicles rather than develop efficient engines.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-wants-to-close-the-suv-loophole-that-supersized-cars/
This is 100% correct, and now they have put most people in an arms race as who buys the biggest one to feel "safer"
Also the rest of the world thinks we are weird and love giant cars now. We don't really have much of an option for normal sized cars
I wonder what the criteria for SUV is for these studies?
I’m probably an outlier but I switched from a compact sedan to a compact SUV that’s 10 inches shorter in length, 4 inches higher in height, and 1 inch wider than my old car. They are about the same in weight, within a couple hundred pounds, and the new car is about 80g/km lower in emissions.
I technically own an SUV but it’s not super different from a hatchback car.
I noticed the same trend here in the Netherlands so don't worry too much.
Pickup trucks are still a rare sight here though.
If we are going to leave the carve out for SUVs and Work Trucks, we need to at least:
A) repeal the tariffs on light trucks such as the Isuzu light truck.
B) require a business licence to purchase these "work vehicles", and require a CDL to drive them.
That will reverse this trend tout suite.
"How to make a car as big as possible without increasing the amount of space inside it."
We're so fucked.
i wonder what else could have been made of the materials in trucknutz
Just more hot air
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A report by the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI) showed SUVs now represented a majority of the new car market (51%), and the average LDV weight had reached an all-time high of more than 1.5 tonnes.
Automotive companies market SUVs intensively as they provide the most profit: they are sold at premium prices but have a proportionally lower manufacturing cost.
The authors of the report called for governments to place restrictions on vehicle sizes to reverse the SUV trend.
The reduction in emissions from the motor industry has been driven by an uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), which reached 15% of market share in 2022.
The report also said markets with strong growth in this area, such as China and Europe, had the largest annual energy efficiency improvements of close to 6%.
Dan Sperling, the founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, said: “Reversing the trend toward bigger and heavier vehicles is key to achieving more sustainable mobility.
The original article contains 409 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 60%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I don’t fully understand why SUVs are more profitable. What makes them worth more than a minivan or wagon for instance. I know premium versions of both those vehicle types exist (actually I’m pretty sure some of the only new wagons you can buy today are from premium German brands.)
Wankpanzery begets wankpanzery.
I didn't know this term before. I live in the land of wankpanzern, I'll be sure to use this one!