ladies & gentlemen, start your engines
Aiming to tackle air pollution by targeting out-of-town non-resident drivers of heavy, large and high-polluting cars, Parisians voted, in an admittedly largely ignored referendum where less 6% turned-out, to triple parking costs for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to as much as #200/day. Ouch. Having been brought up in a Hillman Imp-owning family, one that aspired to upsize to an original Mini, the question is where did these gargantuan vehicles come from and when did they takeover our streets?
Sports utility vehicles evolved originally from the US Jeep and our own Land Rover when, in the late 70s, manufacturers started making traditional passenger cars that incorporated higher ground clearance and four-wheel drive. The actual term, SUV, was first coined in the sales brochure for the 1974 Jeep Cherokee and signalled a move towards higher, chunky bodywork, oversized bumpers and rugged stylings that gestured towards the outdoor life. Notwithstanding their humble origins, SUV numbers have jumped tenfold in the last decade, now number an estimated 330 million worldwide and account for a massive 46% of global car sales.
Although seldom seen off-road or on mountain tracks, drivers are attracted by the sporty freedom alluded to, the high-riding position, visibility, and feeling of safety afforded by a large, solid car. Their ubiquity has encouraged a form of size-based arms race where smaller cars are seen as unsafe, vulnerable and insignificant, one that the automobile industry is actively encouraging. SUVs now command a price premium and the result, with no discernible manufacturing cost excess, is an increased profit margin of up to 20% on their smaller rivals. The obvious downside is that size does matter where pollution is concerned.
According to the International Energy Agency, SUVs consume about 20% more oil than medium-sized cars and annual CO2 emissions reached one billion tonnes last year. Incredibly, these vehicles produce more emissions than the entire aviation industry, and were SUVs a country, they’d rank as the sixth most polluting in the world! Their sheer size is also now an issue. A Range Rover Sport is nearly five metres long and two metres wide and a recent analysis by Which? found that more than 150 SUV models are now too big to fit in the average UK parking bay. Furthermore, and perhaps more seriously, in collisions, SUVs are 28% more likely to kill occupants of other cars and twice as likely to kill pedestrians and cyclists. Proper ouch.
Admittedly, many SUV owners already pay more road tax in the UK, emission zones deter older models from entering some city centres and councils occasionally charge more for parking larger cars. But clearly, at the moment, this is not discouraging their purchase and some campaigners and activists want to go further. Since 2022, the Tyre Extinguishers have been waging a guerrilla war against Chelsea tractors. Under cover of the night they have been letting air out of their targets’ tyres, usually by inserting a dried bean or lentil into the tyre valve. Once done, they leave a note explaining their action: ‘Attention – your gas-guzzler kills. We have deflated one of your tyres. Yes, you’ll be angry but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car.’
