Werbung
Werbung
Meinungsbeitrag

SUV Trend: Like in a Full SUV - Why We Need to Get Off Our High Horse

The market share of high-seating vehicles is increasing continuously: Almost half of the new cars in Europe are crossovers. Even Smart and Ferrari are joining in, and the new Chinese brands are already involved. Renault misses the opportunity to position the R4 as cleverly as the original. The trend is pure energy waste and counterproductive. And electrification even serves as a blank check to build large and bulky vehicles.

Ball and chain and wheel off: What have Renault designers done to the R4?! R4ever? In this form: R4never! | Photo: Renault
Ball and chain and wheel off: What have Renault designers done to the R4?! R4ever? In this form: R4never! | Photo: Renault
Werbung
Werbung
Johannes Reichel

It is a number that shocks: the share of so-called Sports Utility Vehicles, commonly known as SUVs, was 49.5 percent in the first half of 2022 according to analysts from market observer Jato Dynamics. The Paris Auto Show once again brought numerous newcomers, the most egregious "faux pas" perhaps being the Mercedes EQE-SUV or the Renault 4ever Concept. Although electric, they are still SUVs, which already reveals a "contradiction in terms" because electric cars should actually be as flat and light as possible to handle the precious energy most efficiently. The latter leads the idea of the original as a "clever, space and energy-saving multifunctional vehicle" to absurdity. And the former parodies, in its wobbly shapelessness, the epitome of an elegant limousine that the E-Class once was. Even a BMW iX mocks every 7 Series derisively.

It almost seems as if electrification has granted a free pass to build fat cars, because after all, they are emission-free. It serves as a justification, as a "Licence to SUV".

A long row of off-road cruisers for backache sufferers stretches from Jeep Avenger to DS7 E-Tense or Peugeot 408, which, just about beautifully flat, will soon also come in high-heeled form, leaving its limousine genes behind. This is usually euphemistically called a "crossover", or in this case "fastback", because they absolutely do not want to categorize the 308 among the numerous in-house SUVs bearing the double zero. Another euphemism with built-in contradiction is the term "compact SUV": the range of the best-selling models from Opel Mokka to BMW X3 stretches here from 4.15 to 4.72 meters.

Global trend across all brands

But even the new providers from the Far East are not immune to the trend that doesn't surprise in pickup land USA, where every second vehicle is now an SUV in addition to the many open transporters. In China, SUVs have a market share of 47 percent, and manufacturers like BYD with the Atto and Tang, Smart is transforming from a city-micro to a stately "city SUV" and, the Wey Coffee is also a true behemoth of a cruiser. At the same time, Geely subsidiary Polestar announces with its Model 3 a large SUV with a height of 1.61 meters, which then requires a 111-kWh battery to travel 610 kilometers.

Vinfast is also joining the SUV lineup, and even Ferrari believes it can no longer avoid taking part, as Maserati and Alfa have long become so weak(-minded) as to sell a high seat as a sports car - and are even successful with it. Recently, Der Spiegel rightly lamented not only an aesthetic sellout but also an energy waste that completely contradicts climate goals in transportation.

Help, my Volvo has mutated: From station wagon to SUV!

The glance at the SUV shares of the manufacturers is also alarming, with Toyota marking the lower end at 26 percent. Then it goes up, literally: BMW, VW, Opel, all at 40 percent, Ford, Audi, Hyundai, Skoda at 44 to 47 percent, Nissan, Seat at 57 and 58 percent, and even LAMBORGHINI at an unbelievable 54 percent, Maserati, Alfa even at 63 percent, and among the volume manufacturers, surprisingly, the former station wagon pro Renault shocks with 65 percent, and at Volvo, the icon of classic station wagons, it seems with 85 percent there is nothing left but rolling high seats.

"Given the rising energy prices, this ignorance is bizarre. But it is widespread among consumers and self-inflicted, as SUVs are not prescribed by doctors," complained Paolo Tumminelli, Professor of Design Concepts at the Technical University in Cologne, to the media outlet.

A negative trend, a domino effect, has developed, to the point where people would consider it irresponsible not to drive an SUV and couldn't justify driving a smaller, smarter, and more efficient car. The SUV fulfills the aura of a "mobile, comfortable, and elevated refuge for the family," according to the designer's assessment. Refuge car?! Do we still have all our cells in the battery? Refugees are needed (unfortunately) in Ukraine, but certainly not in well-regulated German traffic, which often consists of congestion anyway. Sadly, this already bears traits of decadence.

The SUV class continues to describe the highest growth rates. When adding the separately listed and also popular pure off-road vehicles, together with the booming buses and motorhomes which became a full trend during the pandemic and are unfortunately more favorably viewed but no less environmentally damaging, heavy, and space-consuming: Not just refuge, but living space, how cool! Conversely, this means that small cars, station wagons, and sedans are dying out. And particularly paradoxical: Electrification is displacing them.

SUVs cost a fifth more, but not in manufacturing...

Anyway, as is generally the case with cars, rationality seems to be completely absent. In favor of the manufacturers' margins, who gladly sell SUVs that are scarcely more expensive in production cost since they suggest added value that customers apparently are happy to pay for. Clearly, they gladly satisfy this demand - also with the illusion of "limitless freedom on all routes" or in the "urban jungle," which advertisements love to evoke. However, pseudo off-road vehicles do not have much more space than well-made station wagons of the Golf or Passat class. Yet, they cost 15 to 20 percent more.

And above all, they weigh significantly more, so the ADAC estimates their additional fuel consumption to be a third more compared to a "normal" combustion engine.

A VW Tiguan weighs almost a "slim" 1.5 tons, a Golf around 1.25 tons. Adding the battery weight on top - and you get a 1.8-ton compact car. E-SUVs quickly reach standard weights of well over two tons, a BMW iX or Mercedes EQS-SUV even approach the driving license limit with their empty weights of 2.7 and 2.8 tons, respectively, due to their 110 kWh batteries.

These are massive weight increases that nullify any efficiency gains that e-mobility would bring, and which we urgently need for climate protection. Moreover, they cause new problems, such as the sharp rise in fine dust due to tire abrasion from these monster cars.

It is then justified that the large-format battery can be better hidden under the floor in high-ride vehicles. What a nonsensical argument of almost dadaistic absurdity following the Polt motto: I don't need a counter-argument, I am already against it! A flat, light, and efficient e-car would not even need such a large battery.

If, for instance, a Peugeot e-308 SW, alongside the Hyundai Ioniq 6, one of the few recent hopes of automotive reason, would genuinely achieve 400 kilometers of range from a 50 kWh battery, that would be the direction to head.

Even the Citroen Oli - 40 kWh, 400 kilometers, four persons, one ton empty weight - shows that manufacturers are indeed aware of the problem. Unfortunately, the concept has no chance of realization, as quarterly margins are still needed. And those are provided by SUVs. Thus, the respectable Oli is contradicted in reality by the DS7 E-Tense, the "charismatic SUV," as ironically advertised by the same manufacturer. Charismatic, indeed, was the "deesse" back then, when the Citroen DS lay ultra-low to the ground and aerodynamics were paramount. Graphics circulate on the internet under the motto: "The aerodynamic DS had the right shape for contemporary cars." Even "automotive," humanity had progressed further.

Is "SUV fatigue" coming? At most with a long braking distance

But there is hope: The industry bible "Automobilwoche" recently identified an "SUV fatigue" after 25 years of the "SUV binge." And designer Tumminelli dreams of a "reinvention of the automobile," somewhere between a bicycle and a car, luxurious, smart, individual, in short, "sympathetic and intelligent." However, it may be that the braking distance of the SUV trend is very long. Too long! Urgent legal regulations are needed to stop this madness and make high seats as expensive as they cost the environment. Some countries have such measures. And how about an effective marketing campaign "Small is beautiful"? It can quietly be "small premium," because "small" is the new "big." We can no longer afford this automotive luxury on a planetary scale. We urgently need to get off our high horse.

Translated automatically from German.
Werbung

Branchenguide

Werbung