Navin Singh Khadka
Environmental correspondent, BBC World Service
Reuters
New SUV vehicles are going through a Canada bridge in the United States
Throughout the world, more and more sports utility vehicles (SUV) are identified on roads – and outside -.
This despite the predictions of the United Nations from an inevitable pivot towards smaller and more environmentally friendly vehicles due to the urgency of the climate crisis and the increase in the cost of living.
This pivot did not materialize: worldwide, 54% of cars sold in 2024 were SUVs, including petrol, diesel, hybrids and electric brands. This is an increase of three percentage points compared to 2023 and five percentage points compared to the previous year, according to GlobalData.
Among the SUVs that are now on the road – new and old models – 95% burn fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency (AIE).
Manufacturers, however, say that their new fleets of such cars are becoming more and more electric and that not all SUVs are sold which are not sold in the increase in emissions.
Reuters
A vote was held for Paris residents in 2024 to increase parking costs for SUVs to reduce emissions and increase pedestrian safety
SUVs are difficult to miss. They are heavy and larger with spacious interiors, a higher floor clearance and a high driving position with a better view on the road, although smaller versions are also on the market.
Environmental activists such as Greenpeace see SUVs as one of the bad guys in the climate crisis and maintain that their manufacture consumes significant resources given their size.
Experts also say that they need larger batteries to supply their electric versions, which then increases the request for critical minerals, which exerts even more pressure on the planet.
The momentum was supposed to be with smaller and energy efficient electric vehicles. But sales of standard electric vehicles (VE) have in fact decreased on the main markets such as Japan and Germany, and their growth in sales has slowed down in India.
And in Europe, SUV sales exceeded those of electric vehicles despite the indications more than half a decade ago of an opposite trend. In Europe in 2018, 3.27 million small hayon hayons – both fossil fuels and those by electricity – were sold while 2.13 million were sold in 2024, according to Globaldata.
Sammy Chan, responsible for sales forecasts, said: “This is partly due to the alternatives of the SUV offered in smaller (sizes) whose sales in Europe have now increased to almost 2.5 million in 2024, against 1.5 million in 2018.”
According to GlobalData, China saw the most important sales of almost 11.6 million SUVs in 2024, followed by the United States, India and Germany.
What stimulates this SUV growth?
Industry experts say that people’s purchasing power has improved in many emerging savings quickly, making the more likely choice of the car.
“Manufacturers react to consumer demand and, more and more, drivers are attracted to double -use vehicles given their practicality, comfort and good road view,” said Mike Hawes, managing director of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Analysts in the automotive industry also claim that manufacturers are attracted to high -speaking beneficiary margins: they can earn more money with SUVs even if they make fewer vehicles.
“It is the industry that has motivated demand thanks to huge marketing and advertising campaigns in recent years,” said Dudley Curtis, head of European Transport Safety Council communications.
“SUKs have offered the industry a simple way to charge more for a vehicle that does the same thing (as others),” he said.
Getty images
The expected increase in the popularity of rechargeable electric vehicles in the past five years does not seem to have materialized
Are SUVs a problem?
Due to the robust growth in SUV sales, the IAI claims that the consumption of oil of these vehicles increased by 600,000 barrels per day worldwide between 2022 and 2023, representing more than a quarter of the total annual increase in global oil demand.
“If it is classified among the countries, the worldwide fleet of SUVs would be the fifth global CO2 transmitter, going beyond Japanese emissions and various other big economies,” said the Petropolous apostole, an energy modeler with the IAI.
The agency says that even compared to medium -sized cars that operate in gasoline and diesel, SUV burns 20% more fuels that they hang up to 300 kg more on average.
In fact, road transport is responsible for more than 12% of world carbon emissions which is the main engine of global warming. Scientists say that all sectors must decarbonize quickly if we want to avoid a climate disaster.
But industry representatives claim in response that not all SUVs are sold that do not cause an increase in emissions.
“About two out of five out of five vehicles are zero emissions because their type of body lends itself well to electrification with a longer range of batteries that can reassure consumers concerned about invoicing accessibility,” said Hawes, SMMT.
“This has led the average CO2 emissions of dual -use cars to two users than half since 2000, helping the segment to direct the decarbonization of British mobility.”
Although the vast majority of new SUVs still burn fossil fuels, IEA officials said that more than 20% of the SUVs sold in 2023 were entirely electric, compared to 2% in 2018.
With regard to hybrids that can work both on electricity and fossil fuels, a study in Europe by the International Council on clean transport in 2022 only revealed 30% of the total distance driven by rechargeable hybrid electric vehicles (all types, including SUVs), was in electrical mode on average.
Similar results have been found in other major economies such as the United States and China.
Overall, the back towards SUVs, according to some experts, caused a significant setback in the decarbonization of the transport sector.
“The trend towards heavier and less effective vehicles such as SUVs (in countries where this happens) has largely canceled improvements in energy consumption and emissions made elsewhere in the world fleet of passenger cars,” said IEA.
The Climate Change Change Committee of the British Parliament experienced a similar conclusion in its 2024 report on decarbonization in the country.
