People buying SUVs are cancelling out climate gains from electric cars

There are a lot of big pickups and SUVs on the road. There's a tiny percentage where the vehicle suits the use, but in the vast majority of cases, the vehicles are entirely a fashion with no real utility - or even negative utility. There is only a self-reinforcing utility of defending yourself from other tall and heavy vehicles. All this has been said many times before. When it comes to vehicles, people have no shame. What it tells us about the future of global warming seems very clear.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2021-03-11&#x2F;the-dangerous-rise-of-the-supersized-pickup-truck" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2021-03-11&#x2F;the-dange...</a><p>Quote: Among the increasingly popular heavy-duty models, the height of the truck’s front end may reach a grown man’s shoulders or neck. When you involve children in this exercise it starts to become really disturbing. My four-year-old son, for example, barely cleared the bumper on a lifted F-250 we came across in a parking lot last summer.

I bought my SUV around 3 years ago. There wasn&#x27;t and still isn&#x27;t non-Tesla, non-crossover, somewhat affordable options. I would love it if they just made an electric version of the vehicle I own, Subaru Ascent. I would gladly trade it in for an electric version. I want a vehicle with 3 rows of seating that can fold down and doesn&#x27;t try to make a statement with the design. Until companies make cars that don&#x27;t scream &quot;electric car&quot; with their design, we will continue to see these trends. Looking forward to the F-150 Lightning because that seems like Ford gets it and I would have preordered one if the damn thing could fit in my garage length wise.

A huge percentage (about 20%) of all cars I see are SUVs. Even for smaller cars there seems to be a trend towards really bulky bodies. Cars have become larger and larger over the years.<p>We have a giant problem with climate change yet car manufacturers keep making larger and larger cars. And people buy them. This does not make any sense to me. It only accelerates climate change, parking spaces become even harder to find in cities, and most people don&#x27;t need an SUV at all.<p>I think SUVs and all large trucks that are not real utility vehicles should be outlawed.

Something missed in the conversation, because the Honda CR-V is a smaller platform than the Honda Accord; the facts for storage capacity or seating aren&#x27;t there either.<p>If we really examine the differences at a fact level, the main child(ren) factor is really the height (not having to bend over @ a car seat). A small convenience, and a convenience that points to Americans continuing to have less physical mobility.<p>Anecdotally, I do think more people are complaining about the difficulty of squatting down to my sedan seats.

Electric SUVs will be coming very soon. Two of the first vehicles using GM’s new EV platform rolling out in 2022 are SUVs.

I look forward to large SUVs losing their social license. Men can find another way to feel like big tough guys.

SUVs look cool. That&#x27;s why. They are also somewhat of a status symbol.

We could ban all gas-powered cars now: just start with vehicles priced over $100,000, and decrease the threshold by $10,000 annually.

If you have two kids and the grandparents live with you (our situation), unfortunately SUVs are more or less the only option. Otherwise you take two cars everywhere, and two sedans are worse for the environment than one SUV.