To Heck With Electric SUVs, America Needs a Good EV Station Wagon

The idea was also floated that any non-tradesman who feels the need to ride around in a pickup truck or an SUV is better off buying a station wagon. We must admit, that idea's got our noggins jogging. You see, station wagons, or estate cars as the Brits call them, are a dying breed in North America. But if you ask us, the upcoming transition away from internal combustion engines is the perfect opportunity to change that.

Let's break down why we think the auto industry at large ought to take the proverbial gas off full devotion to electric SUVs and pickup trucks. Why is it that the top three most sold vehicles in the U.S. last year were full-sized pickup trucks? Is it that in the sudden great resignation following the global health crisis, millions of people decided to take up jobs as a tradesman?

As lovely of a thought as that would be, you'd be fooling yourself if you thought that's even remotely true. Especially in an urban or suburban setting, pickup trucks without a single scratch on the rear bed top-coat are a more common site than ever. You don't have to psychoanalyze every single suburban truck driver to understand the obvious hypocrisy of using a heavy-duty truck to go pick up milk, eggs, and cheese.

Pickup trucks and SUVs take up valuable real estate on crowded city streets, turn spacious parking lots into horror shows, and treat pedestrians their drivers fail to spot in time with all the prejudice of a charging rhino. Did we mention it's actually pretty hard to lug heavy items into pickup beds or SUV rear hatches several feet above the ground? There was a time many moons ago when people were more sensible. A time when families on the move all drove station wagons.

Do you guys and gals remember the days of awesome wagon/estate cars? The days when Oldsmobile Vista Cruisers and Ford LTD had all the V8 grunt of their performance coupe brethren, but with all the capacity to haul the kids, their friends, and all their knick knacks? Or maybe you're from a slightly younger crowd that grew up sitting in the back of a Volvo 900 series or an early 2000s Subaru Outback.

Do you know what these cars plus every other wagon have in common? It's that they don't have the notorious catastrophic failings that trucks and SUVs in urban settings have. When it comes to the upcoming all-electric revolution, that's an important selling point. Gasoline-powered pickup trucks and SUVs aren't known for being light on their feet at the best of times. A modern Chevy Suburburban weighs in excess of 5,500 lbs.

So when we tell you a contemporary GMC Hummer EV breaks the scale at a pants-splitting 9,063 lbs (4,111 kg), it's a sign the automotive industry is going in the complete opposite direction when it comes to designing electric vehicles. Just think about it for a second. If you're driving through an intersection in an average ICE-powered compact or subcompact and a Hummer EV runs a red light at even just moderate speeds, you're a dead man (or woman).

Especially in a city setting, as the Not Just Bikes YouTube channel pointed out, all-electric SUVs aren't going to be any safer for other motorists or pedestrians than their diesel or gasoline counterparts. If anything, they're bound to be considerably more dangerous. In this case, the only reasonable compromise we can think of is to send urban Americans down the pipeline of buying smaller, more economical, and far safer electric station wagons, mini vans, and small city cars.

Granted, there aren't exactly too many choices in the U.S. domestic market for electric station wagons.The Europeans routinely get better estate cars than North Americans do, so that's nothing new. But our personal favorite would have to be the Volvo V60 Recharge plug-in hybrid. Sadly to say, a coordinated effort by the American auto industry to skirt regulations by pushing light trucks exempt from standard emissions and safety testing messed things up big time.

It's led to a country where those who want to buy station wagons are essentially muscled into buying larger vehicles they don't really want. Or  even more horrifically, they feel as though they need to drive large cars to validate themselves in a clout race most people can't hope to win. There's just not an easy solution to this issue, unfortunately.

But as grievous injuries from SUV and pickup truck-related incidents in urban centers continue to rise in America, there's going to come to a point where lawmakers can't look away anymore. When that day comes, don't be surprised if driving your Range Rover through a crowded city center winds up getting it placed on a tow truck and slapped with a hefty fine. Despair about personel freedoms all you wish, it all goes out with the window when your daily driver becomes a public health crisis.