Photo: Nissan
The crossover isn’t exactly new. Inadvertently created by AMC with the Eagle in 1979, crossovers started getting trendy in the 2000s but especially in the 2010s. In this day and age, passenger car-based utility vehicles are more popular than SUVs as we know them, namely the old guard consisting of the Ford Explorer, Chevrolet Tahoe, and Dodge Durango.
Automakers might pour millions and even billions into more efficient powertrains, including plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles. But the appetite of the consumer for crossover has the last say, increasing profit margins for both automakers and oil companies.
Founded a year after the 1973 oil crisis, the International Energy Agency came to a rather obvious conclusion in regard to this trend. Even though global sales of internal combustion-engined vehicles fell by 2 percent in 2018, around 40 percent of new sales in the U.S. consist of utility vehicles compared to a 20-percent market share in 2010.
“This trend is universal,” according to the IEA. “Almost half of all cars sold in the United States and one-third of the cars sold in Europe are SUVs.” China is also feeling the love for this type of vehicle, and India isn’t too far behind. After all, the Ford EcoSport sold in the U.S. is made in India because that’s how globalization works. This gets us to the impact of heavier vehicles in terms of CO2 emissions and oil consumption.
“The global fleet of SUVs has seen its emissions growing by nearly 0.55 Gt CO2 during the last decade to roughly 0.7 Gt of carbon dioxide,” highlighted the IEA. This means that SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the increase in CO2 emissions since 2010 after the power sector, ahead of heavy industry, trucks, and the aviation industry.
It should be mentioned that SUVs nowadays also include crossovers because sport utility vehicle sounds manlier, more appealing in a sales brochure for something as boring as the Hyundai Venue. Utility vehicles are also responsible for the considerable growth in oil demand of 3.3 million barrels a day from passenger cars from 2010 to 2018.
If the trend continues, SUVs would add 2 million barrels a day in oil demand by 2040. That kind of growth would offset the environmental benefits of 150 million electric cars, and that says a lot about how wasteful utility vehicles are. Remember when MPVs and station wagons were all the rage?
Founded a year after the 1973 oil crisis, the International Energy Agency came to a rather obvious conclusion in regard to this trend. Even though global sales of internal combustion-engined vehicles fell by 2 percent in 2018, around 40 percent of new sales in the U.S. consist of utility vehicles compared to a 20-percent market share in 2010.
“This trend is universal,” according to the IEA. “Almost half of all cars sold in the United States and one-third of the cars sold in Europe are SUVs.” China is also feeling the love for this type of vehicle, and India isn’t too far behind. After all, the Ford EcoSport sold in the U.S. is made in India because that’s how globalization works. This gets us to the impact of heavier vehicles in terms of CO2 emissions and oil consumption.
“The global fleet of SUVs has seen its emissions growing by nearly 0.55 Gt CO2 during the last decade to roughly 0.7 Gt of carbon dioxide,” highlighted the IEA. This means that SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the increase in CO2 emissions since 2010 after the power sector, ahead of heavy industry, trucks, and the aviation industry.
It should be mentioned that SUVs nowadays also include crossovers because sport utility vehicle sounds manlier, more appealing in a sales brochure for something as boring as the Hyundai Venue. Utility vehicles are also responsible for the considerable growth in oil demand of 3.3 million barrels a day from passenger cars from 2010 to 2018.
If the trend continues, SUVs would add 2 million barrels a day in oil demand by 2040. That kind of growth would offset the environmental benefits of 150 million electric cars, and that says a lot about how wasteful utility vehicles are. Remember when MPVs and station wagons were all the rage?
Google News