Keeping vehicle sizes at the same proportions as sedans rather than sport utility vehicles (SUVs) would have reduced emissions from the automotive sector by more than 30% between 2010 and 2022, according to an analysis.
Light-duty vehicle (LDV) fuel consumption decreased by an average of 4.2% each year worldwide between 2020 and 2022, despite the fact that typical automobile sizes increased as the popularity of SUVs skyrocketed.
Issue With Increasing Vehicle Size
According to the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI), the percentage of SUVs in the new vehicle market has risen to 51%, while the average LDV weight has increased to almost 1.5 tons.
The average size of a modern car is already 4.2 square meters, and this trend is expected to keep going. SUVs are heavily marketed by car manufacturers because they provide the most profits for their businesses, thanks to their high selling prices and cheap production costs.
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What Can We Do About It?
The study's authors advocated for size limits to be imposed by governments as a means to counteract the increasing popularity of SUVs, the Guardian reported.
"Growing vehicle size is a huge problem, which is threatening many aspects of sustainable mobility, from climate to road safety," said Sheila Watson, deputy director of the FIA Foundation, an environmental and road safety organization. "This report shows that we must move away from these mega-vehicles if we are to achieve the GFEI goal of doubling the fuel efficiency of cars by 2030. Vehicle size matters - and in this case bigger is definitely not better."
A rise in the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) is largely responsible for the automotive industry's declining pollution levels; by 2022, EVs have captured 15% of the market. Strong growth areas, such as China and Europe, were found to have the highest yearly energy efficiency increases of over 6%, according to the survey. North America, which has a smaller market acceptance of EVs, achieved an annual improvement rate of only 1.6%.
"Reversing the trend toward bigger and heavier vehicles is key to achieving more sustainable mobility," said Dan Sperling, founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. He added that this is also true for electric mobility since it will help level the playing field for EVs and decrease demand for scarce resources like rare earth metals and more power.
The authors of the paper are also urging investment in renewables, a reversal of fossil fuel subsidies, carbon pricing, restrictions on minimum EV charging installations, and financial instruments intended to promote affordable access to EVs.
