Buying an SUV is sometimes due to network effects.<p>If you are in a sedan, it isn't high enough to allow you to see traffic through the windshields of the SUV ahead of you, it's not much different than being behind an 18-wheeler.<p>So as a defensive maneuver, you also buy an SUV...
Gas taxes haven’t gone up in nearly three decades. The cost of driving an automobile is divorced from the reality of what it costs to maintain roads and protect the climate.
There's a 1973 video [0] about people shifting away from gas-guzzlers because oil prices have risen so much. I wonder whether we can expect history to repeat itself here:<p>[0] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClaNhx71XB8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClaNhx71XB8</a>
I have one hypothesis for part of the uptick: rear seat room for carseats. I consider myself the SUV hater of SUV haters, and I reject that you need one when you have kids (such is the idea in my part of the US), but...we bought one last year anyway, mainly to accommodate two rear-facing carseats with two adults in the front. There aren’t many cars that make this work, and you’d be surprised how big of an SUV you have to get to get any more rear seat space than a regular car. Not even most of the “mid-size” models.
I understand why even cheap crappy plastic SUV sell in IE AND UK so well, people are tired of speed ramps and those vehicles are great for driving through crappy roads and speed ramps in housing estates and minor roads in small towns that are cursed with speed ramps. Sitting high enough to see surrounding plus not having to slow down for speed ramps win win
Why are these mutually exclusive? An electric drive train can be fitted to an SUV form factor. In fact, it might be easier to get to an acceptable range (300mi) because there’s more space for more batteries (assuming each battery delivers more range than its weight continues to scale).<p>I think the easiest way to accelerate decarbonization is to make green tech more desirable independent of the greenness. If people want it, they’ll get it and in that sense SUVs could help achieve climate goals.
No one will care when an Explorer gets 20-25 mpg and gas is still under $2.50/gallon. The comfort and utility advantages more than outweigh any possible long-term externalities in the ordinary calculus.