The Return of the Full-Sized SUV

Phoebe Wall Howard reports for the Detroit Free Press on a renewed focus on large SUVs among American automakers as they look to market to Millennials with families.

In total, "sales of large SUVs spiked 22% between 2015 and 2016, which means 340,530 drove off dealership lots last year alone," according to Wall Howard. And, "[a]bout 35% of the consumers who purchase large SUVs are 35 to 44, which means a huge demographic shift into a new vehicle category." The offers insight into the reasoning behind the choices of Americans who recently bought large SUVs.

For more background and data on the trend, an August article by Keith Naughton picked up on the demographic trends of Millennials adopting the modes and lifestyle choices of previous generations. Planetizen correspondent Irvin Dawid has been tracking the data as SUVs have regained popularity, even declaring 2016 the "year of the sports utility vehicle." There is some reason for optimism that the new batch of SUVs aren't like the old batch: it's possible fuel consumption could still drop despite all these new large vehicles on the road.