As SUVs surpass 50% market share in new car sales; HOW SUVS ARE BAD FOR YOUR WALLET AND PLANET.
Note this is not a scholarly article or peer reviewed paper, feel free to correct me in comments below and I will amend, it is a blog post and polemic against the ever increasing and unnecessary weight of personal transportation aka cars – Ireland’s biggest GHG emitter after cattle.
Checked SIMI Motorstats – the complete online vehicle index for Ireland | Stats (beepbeep.ie) yesterday after the Task Strategy Group cited Tax By Weight changes to VRT but not Motor Tax, and confirmed SUV class vehicles are now over 58% of new car sales.
Given that the International Energy Agency IEA has repeatedly said the growth in SUVs is responsible for more emissions growth than all other sources except power generation – including aviation, why is this happening?
- 2020 https://www.iea.org/commentaries/carbon-emissions-fell-across-all-sectors-in-2020-except-for-one-suvs
- 2021 https://www.iea.org/commentaries/global-suv-sales-set-another-record-in-2021-setting-back-efforts-to-reduce-emissions
- 2023 https://www.iea.org/commentaries/as-their-sales-continue-to-rise-suvs-global-co2-emissions-are-nearing-1-billion-tonnes
- 2024 https://www.iea.org/commentaries/suvs-are-setting-new-sales-records-each-year-and-so-are-their-emissions
We cannot ban SUVs – they are needed for real work. We can tax overweight and overly tall vehicles being used where they shouldn’t be – in #Budget2025. This is an opinion piece to have overweight SUV’s and pickup ‘trucks’ taxed appropriately i.e. disincentivised just as we did with “gas guzzlers” in the past via Motor Tax i.e. an annual charge reflecting their ongoing impact.
This blog post is called #SUVskam to remind people of Greta Thunberg’s #FLYGskam flight shaming campaign, a reminder that aviation matters too (Cars c.7% of Irish GHG, Int’l aviation c.4%) but – in my view – SUVs are a scam on buyers and the planet.
Weight
Anyone who has ridden a bike – even as kid – knows the heavier the bike the harder it is to pedal, yet we seem to forget this when we look at cars (commercial buyers do check weight, it Is a key criteria in the EU Green Public Procurement criteria which I worked on 2015-20, it also a criteria in the EPA’s latest Transport procurement guidance).
Lets compare empty weight vs payload for many of our road vehicles, an average Irish car carries 1.5 people on average, taking a 90kg me and multiplying by 1.5 gives us 135kg typical payload, assuming you have no (metaphorical) dead bodies in the boot / load area.
The proportion of deadweight is incredible, who is paying for this? You are. The owner pays for this increasing weight at point of purchase (in kg of steel and lithium) and in every Kilometre driven in excess fuel or electricity use.
| Weight Reduction | At YTD Irish prices diesel €1.75/L (AA Ireland Feb’22) | |||
| Estimated Fuel savings in Litres over 200,000km | Litres saved | |||
| kg | Car | Truck (SUV) | Car | Truck (SUV) |
| 10 | 80 | 100 | €140 | €175 |
| 25 | 200 | 250 | €350 | €438 |
| 50 | 400 | 500 | €700 | €875 |
| 100 | 800 | 1,000 | €1,400 | €1,750 |
| 200 | 1,600 | 2,000 | €2,800 | €3,500 |
| 400 | 3,200 | 4,000 | €5,600 | €7,000 |
| 1,000 | 8,000 | 10,000 | €14,000 | €17,500 |
Increasing amounts of safety equipment account for much of this deadweight (this article could have been called EuroNCAP scam), but our choice of taller heavier vehicles is the biggest factor as the effect is seen worldwide.
As an arthritis sufferer I can see why a taller vehicle suits some of us, but one that you have to step up into makes no more sense than one you have to crawl/roll into.
Safety
But SUVs are safer I hear you say. Personally I have never found swaying around in a tall vehicle to feel safe, I prefer a lower centre of gravity, but that’s just me. Being higher up does give you a view of the road ahead, but as every other vehicle gets higher its just a keeping up with the Jones’ game of ever taller cars – take a double decker bus if you really want to see the road ahead?
The US has by far the longest experience of SUVs and the results are not pretty, I’ll share the figures further down, but this video from dashcam footage in the UK perhaps illustrates the point of how SUVs are not safe at any speed.
Higher means less stable, what appears to happen here is that the SUV tries to climb over the smaller car, destabilising the SUV and leading to a low speed incident severe enough to cause airbag deployment.
So back to the US, how are their fatalities reducing as SUVs proliferate? They are not, road fatalities in the US are horrific, deaths are increasing for those inside the SUVs as well as outside.
What can we do about the growth in SUVs?
As stated, we cannot ban SUVs, they are needed for useful and necessary work, work vehicles can be taxed as commercials though (by weight class already). Private SUVs carrying an average 1.5 people (CSO) are the one’s we need to target.
As family MPVs are tall for a good reason, we cannot limit heights, no matter how much extra fuel or kWh they use, multi-seat taller vehicles are a necessary shape and model type. And lets be clear, the alternative (multiple journeys) would result in higher emissions; better to pack all the kids & their stuff in to one large vehicle multi drop run than several runs.
Front bonnet height is regulated under EU Type approval rules, so that’s likely a non starter except at EU level (where we see normal cars adopting a uniform bonnet for pedestrian protection and trucks getting lower cabs for better vision, but that’s not what this blog is about). Although US style monster SUVs are evading EU regs as individual imports [link].
In my simple way I propose a €1/kg Motor Tax paid annually by all wheeled road users.
What? No way! I hear many including cyclists say. But taxes need to be seen to be fair and my objective is to send a price signal to buyers that lighter is better i.e. buy the lightest vehicle to do the job – that you can afford.
- Cars; older lighter cars would benefit under this regime but they already pay a higher tax due to emissions rated motor tax so there is an increase but its not huge and would help to signal that these more polluting (air quality wise) vehicles should be taken off the road as soon as possible no matter how low their mileage.
- Heavier cars which are increasingly electric would pay a much higher amount, not fair I hear you say, but EVs don’t pay excise and only pay 13.5% VAT on their electricity whereas diesel pays excise, 23% VAT plus NORA levies to fund the Climate Action Fund (taxes are a necessary evil).
- Frankly a 2+t diesel or petrol 4×4 without tow bar, winch or commercial road tax can afford to pay the extra motor tax every year – that is the point.
- Bicycles, yes you read that right all road users includes bicycles.
- What’s in it for the cyclist? I suggest an anti theft bicycle registration scheme (not a plate) and if needed a universal insurance fund to avoid the nightmare we have now with 3rd party insurance for cars – before bicycle use returns to 1950’s share levels of travel – as I hope and believe it will.
- A road bike would pay €10 per year a cargo bike maybe €30+ per year; unjust maybe but as I said the aim is a fair tax and benefits should outweigh costs in this case reduced thefts (or at least the possibility of getting bike back).
- Commercial vehicles are already classed by weight and pay motor tax on that basis, so no change there.
Politically I can’t see such a simple scale getting thru’ without carve outs for electric, vintage etc. but we must find a way to rejig our tax base for a fossil fuel free world i.e. one where over €3Bn of excise is no longer coming in to the exchequer from transport fuels.
In France tax per 10kg above 1800kg to remove family people carriers etc. and the signal seems to have been received, with the new 2022 Renault Electric Megane 100kg lighter than its German competitor the ID3 (and I see the Renault owned Dacia Spring comes in under 1,000kG ULW).
Any form of motor tax by unladen weight will give us a solid basis and classification for pricing a future tax per km – when the time comes to replace excise, VAT and NORA duties on road fuels.
Politicians could send an additional signal on top of the €1/kg motor tax by allowing a reducing number of Km per annum credit on the full amount to exempt low mileage rural drivers (as an example).
Some math – overly simplified but somewhere to start
- 1500kg unladen weight = € 1500 in motor tax per year at €1/kg
- To start conversation around distance and Km per annum: Allow 2019 average national Km as free allowance in the form of a 50% discount – c.16,000km
- Over the years reduce the Km allowance by say 5% per year so in 5 years the 50% discount is 25% and zero by ten years, this sends a clear signal of support to existing government policy to promote active travel (reducing car Km travelled by 20% by 2030) and no-one can say they weren’t warned.
- Where do we get the odometer readings from? The NCT, we already have this data and its tied to vehicle registration number (an inanimate object) so no GDPR issues.
- Bicycles – no odometer – so no allowance, but you get a security registration and 3rd party insurance. I’d make this voluntary to start and see how it goes (fail early etc.) but bike theft is a big deterrent to bike use in my opinion.
- Thus the € 1500 per annum becomes €750 increasing to the full € 1500 over 10 years, ample time to adjust our driving behaviours, use public transport and switch to active travel modes, as well as trade in older heavier vehicles etc.
No way this gets thru’ #Budget2025
So I’ll continue to promote #TaxByWgt until we all understand that the laws of physics and rolling resistance don’t change no matter what you drive.
Whilst meeting our moral and legal #ClimateAction obligations comes first, ultimately this is about your back pocket or purse, you and me pay the price for owning a heavier vehicle in its excessive resource use (lithium or steel – its all deadweight) and in every Km we drive at the pump and the charger,
What will you choose for your next vehicle? I hope the lightest capable to meet your needs.
If image matters, I urge you to view this video in full (parental advisory) and keep in mind the words of the late great Colin Chapman (founder of Lotus Cars) “Power makes you faster on the straights, lightness makes you faster every where”. I support 30kph limits in all urban areas BTW, but its a great quote and explains the frustration that excessive weight brings to our personal transportation experience.
Other barriers
- We continue to penalise company cars and vans as if they are a luxury when most are used out of necessity. How do we penalise? Reducing BIK when you buy electric and by setting mileage targets to minimise BIK i.e. drive more to reducer your BIK.
- Class L vehicles do not qualify for reduced VRT or electric vehicle grant. Example Class L are Renault Twizy, but also Aptera and others who are developing lighter, cheaper cars to meet the average 1.5 passenger <70km per day need.
- Electric Cargo bikes and similar capable vehicles are not treated equally on our roads, having a single tax regime for all should ensure all road users are counted equally, whilst also putting a stop to the ‘don’t pay road tax’ nonsense from flat cap car drivers (ICYMI road tax went out with the dinosaurs of flat cap and driving gloves).
Conclusion: I can see myriad excuses not to make any changes, but excise tax will rapidly evaporate as high mileage users switch to electric, we simply must find an alternative to excise. In my opinion #TaxByWgt is a first step on the road to building an equitable per Km road user charge; unpalatable to many, but we must move faster and we have the Unladen Weight, Annual Km travelled in state owned and controlled databases today. #ClimateActionNow.