Buyers around the world are turning to larger cars, erasing gains from clean technology. Electric vehicles will help

The negative climate impact of passenger vehicles, which is significant, would have fallen by more than 30% over the past decade if not for the world’s appetite for big cars. New report From the Global Fuel Economy Initiative.

Sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, now account for more than half of new car sales worldwide, and they’re not alone, the group said. The International Energy Agency, using a narrower definition of SUVs, estimates they make up nearly half.

Over the years, these cars have become larger, and so has their cost to the climate, as carbon dioxide emissions are “almost directly proportional to the fuel use” of gas-powered cars. The carbon that enters the pump comes out of the exhaust pipe.

Transportation is responsible About a quarter of greenhouse gases come from energy, much of which is due to… Passenger transportationAccording to the International Energy Agency.

But the negative environmental impact caused by SUVs could be reduced by more than a third between 2010 and 2022, if people continued to buy cars of the same size, according to the initiative, a global partnership for clean vehicle groups.

One solution to this could be electric cars.

George Parrott, a 79-year-old avid runner who lives in West Sacramento, California, decided to switch to cleaner cars in 2004 when he bought a Toyota Prius hybrid. Since then, he has owned several pure electric cars, and currently owns both a Genesis GV60 electric SUV and a Tesla Model 3.

“This was all a combination of broad environmental concerns,” he said.

Parrott and his late partner also knew their area ranked highly in the rankings Polluted Cities American Lung Association existing. “We were going to do anything and everything we could to minimize the impact of air quality here in the Sacramento area,” he said.

Not all consumers think about energy consumption and environmental benefits in the same way, especially in the United States. While electric vehicle sales accounted for 15% of the global auto market last year, that was only it 7.3% in the United States

Meanwhile, small cars, or sedans, have lost much of their ground in the American market over the past decade. In 2012, sedans accounted for 50% of the U.S. auto retail space, with SUVs at just over 30%, and trucks at 13.5%, according to car buying resource Edmunds. By 2022, the share of US sedans had fallen to 21%, while the share of SUVs had reached 54.5%, and the share of trucks had grown to 20%.

“People don’t want to be limited by the space they have in their cars,” said Eric Frese, president of Tamarov Dealer Group in Southeast Michigan. “Everyone wants 7 passengers.”

Large SUVs like the Chevrolet Tahoe, Toyota Sequoia, or Nissan Armada have highway gas mileage figures of 28, 24, and 19, respectively. But even the most efficient SUVs will be less efficient than sedans because SUVs weigh much more. However, a sign of progress is that compact SUVs, such as the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V (at 35 and 34 mpg highway, respectively) now lead the U.S. SUV market, accounting for about 18% of New car sales last year.

Further efforts by the US Department of Transportation, and Environmental Protection Agencyand the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are also underway to improve gas-powered vehicles’ fuel economy and exhaust emissions. Some of the initiatives could include SUVs, which have pushed the industry to boom.

Until recently, consumers had a few electric models to choose from if they wanted to reduce the impact of their transportation. The majority of early electrified vehicle options were sedans, especially in the luxury segment.

More automakers are launching larger types of electric vehicles, but those types may require heavier batteries on board. The environmental aspect also needs to be balanced if an SUV is replaced by an electric car, said Lauren MacDonald, CEO of market analysis firm EVAdoption. “Just electrification won’t get us much if we don’t also focus on the weight and efficiency of these vehicles and smaller battery packs,” MacDonald said.

The industry is racing to develop battery technology to reduce the size of batteries and the amount of critical metals needed to manufacture them.

Figures like those from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative are sure to be relevant to the upcoming COP28 UN climate change talks next week.

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Alexa St. John is a climate solutions reporter for The Associated Press. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @alexa_stjohn.

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