The increasing popularity of ultra-heavy SUVs in England means a conventional-engined car bought in 2013 will, on average, have lower carbon emissions than one bought new today, new research has found.
The study by the climate campaign group Possible said there was a strong correlation between income and owning a large SUV, which meant there was a sound argument for “polluter pays” taxes for vehicle emissions based on size.
Emissions aside, those big SUVs are so ugly and unnecessary for your average driver.
It’s also such a race to outsize other vehicles.
I know SUV drivers who bought an SUV because “everyone owns an SUV, and if you’re driving around in a smaller car, you can’t see anything around you any more.” They’re not even wrong, in some communities it’s getting really hard to participate in traffic of you’re constantly surrounded by much larger, taller cars on all sides.
But of course, they’re now just perpetuating the problem.
One thing I noticed the other day while going through a new drive through is that the increase in vehicle size is noticable there. I drive a sedan, and most of the drive through windows near me are level with my car’s window, but the one that I went through the other day was built in the last year or so, and the window was significantly higher up than my car’s.
Not to mention that they require no additional driver training.
You can pass your test in a Ford Ka, then hop in a 2 tonne range rover the next day.
@GreatAlbatross @DeathWearsANecktie to be fair you cannot drive on a motorway until you pass and then once you pass you can go straight onto it unattended.
You can use the motorway with a an accredited driving instructor before you pass.
The motorway can be an odd one too: The speeds are higher, but they can be one of the safest ways to drive.
Afaik, the reason motorways don’t feature on the test, is that some test centres are 50 miles or more away from one
@GreatAlbatross Apparently you can in England, whoops
And because they’re heavier, there’ll be more wear and tear on the roads too.
Oh man this one is so big for maintenance costs, the damage is exponential! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
Which mostly means it doesn’t matter. Car vs electric truck is basically a rounding error compared to either a lorry or the regular freeze-thaw cycle.
What do u think a electric car eith its huge batteries would do ?
Telsa model 3 is 3000 pounds
Chevy equinox is 3300
Chevy traverse is 4300
Tesla model Y 4400
Tesla model x 5200
Chevy suburban is 5700
And the Rivian R1T is 6949 pounds.
But there is the dacia spring with 2304 pound.
EV does not automatically have to result in huge heavy cars.
Top speed of 125kph, 0-100kph in 19 seconds… Sure, city cars don’t need to be as heavy but then why need a car at all?
“Everyone in the city needs their own car” was not the argument I made, just as your comment did not mean to say that everyone who does not live in the city needs a 3.5 ton truck.
They don’t, but an EV that’s usable in the highway weights as much as a truck. If you want to compare the Spring to other types of vehicles you need to compare its weight to cars in the same category and then you realise that it’s heavier than the equivalent gas car…
I have seen Spring and Renault Zoe on highways, in Germany none the less. If your argument is you need big fast cars for highways I don’t see it that way.
Sure, I’ve seen a 2CV on the highway, it’s not what it’s meant for and it’s not safe for the person driving it. The Spring at 110kph has a range of 145km in good weather…
And again, you’re not comparing the car to an equivalent gas model, you’re just trying to prove that EV cars can be light by using the smallest model you can find and in this case, as I already mentioned, the equivalent gas car is still lighter so the EV still wear the roads more than the gas equivalent, which was the original point.
It’s a good point about the weight of EVs. I suppose it’s a question of whether the benefit of EVs are worth the extra wear on the roads.
When comparing ICE cars though, it’s a pretty clear cut argument that SUVs are worse for everyone except the occupants.
Suv’s are not always worse.
Equinox 26/31 Corvette is 16/25.
Equinox can fit five adults plus room for luggage or other items in jt.
He’ll the Chevy malibu is 27/35 amd is a Sedan. I rather the equinox