The rise of SUVs is making complex efforts to regulate in automated emissions

SUVs are making an impact on the world. That poses a problem for efforts to regulate emissions from the global transportation sector, which accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

For the first time ever in the U.S. last year, sports-only vehicles (SUVs) appeared to account for half or slightly more than half of the vehicles sold, according to recent data brief from IHS Markit, a data and analytics company. Others quickly catch up. Between 2010 and 2019, the share of SUVs in total car sales in China jumped from 14% to 44%. In Europe the SUV share rose from 10% to 36%.

The popularity of the SUV effectively negates the annual benefits of fuel efficiency from improved technology and tightens fuel economy rates. The average annual increase in the fuel efficiency of light vehicles has grown by just around 1.3% in recent years – down from around 2% per year in the previous few years, and well below around 3%. just needed to keep global emissions from cars from rising.

“Consumer demand for larger vehicles has risen sharply,” said a report published last year by the World Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI), a partnership between the United Nations, the International Energy Agency national, and others. This has “led to slackening – or in some cases even reversing – national levels of fuel consumption improvements.”

SUVs are not the only thing that reduces the benefits of fuel efficiency. Other factors include a declining share of diesel vehicle sales, which consume slightly less fuel than gasoline-powered engines, and very low fuel prices in recent years. However, the huge popularity of gas-hungry SUVs is among the most important roadblocks, and arguably the most likely to keep around the longest ones. SUVs are typically around 15-30% less fuel efficient than their predecessor sedan.

Automotive manufacturers have a strong incentive to push customers to choose larger vehicles, as the rate of profit earned for each vehicle sold is higher for SUVs than for sedans . To attract more customers, automotive companies have introduced more new options of SUVs than they have for sedans and other passenger cars, Stephanie Brinley, an analyst at data and analytics firm IHS Markit, said in their comments on email.

Another main reason why SUVs are so popular? They’re just bigger and better than sedans, Brinley suggested.

“Utility vehicles are more practical than passenger cars, and U.S. consumers tend to choose vehicles based on occasional usage needs rather than the needs of everyday drivers / commuters,” she said. “There was a time when sedans were in control, but utility vehicles just make moving people and stuff around easier.”

SUVs are also more difficult to electrify than sedans and other passenger cars, presenting another challenge in terms of managing emissions in the automotive sector. Larger bodies and their powertrains need larger batteries that are able to pump out more electricity.

Of the approximately 27.5 million SUVs sold worldwide last year, only 1.8% were pure electric (excluding hybrids), said Felipe Munoz, senior analyst at JATO Dynamics, a supplier automated data, in e-mail. “Remember that most conventional SUV offerings do not have real electric versions, and a few are very expensive.”

If they offer any electric SUVs, major manufacturers so far offer just about one apiece, a smaller number compared to the range of traditional SUVs available. Tesla is a leader with both the Model Y and the more expensive Model X; Ford recently introduced a model called Mach-E; Volkswagen has the Crozz ID.4; and Chinese automakers Nio, Li Auto and WM Motor have their own electric SUVs.

More electric SUV models are on the way, and, eventually, they could make up the majority of cars on the road. States like California require all new electric vehicle sales to be completed by 2035, and the European Union reportedly wants 30 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030. (Approximately 15 million light vehicles were sold last year in Europe.)

But this update of electric SUVs has not yet happened – and it has not been helped by the pandemic, at least not in the US According to figures from automated information provider JD Power, the department of both battery-powered electric vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles fell in 2020 compared to 2019.

For now, therefore, vehicles may be growing faster than they are becoming electric.