SUVs Are Taking a Toll on the Environment

Based on the amount of emissions they produced last year, the world’s SUVs are, collectively, the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Writing in The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert points out that the average SUV releases 20 percent more carbon per mile driven than a medium-sized car.

“The move toward bigger and heavier vehicles, it seems pretty obvious, is incompatible with the goal of reducing global emissions.” So “Why is it that the world is moving toward heavier cars at a time when it should be doing precisely the reverse?”

One major reason, Kolbert writes, is the high price of SUVs, which are up to 51 percent more expensive than smaller cars, despite similar production costs. U.S. carmakers can also evade fuel efficiency standards by classifying vehicles as trucks. “Unfortunately, the electrical-vehicle tax credits approved last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act give S.U.V.s similarly favorable treatment.”

In addition to carbon emissions, bigger vehicles also create more particulate pollution from tires and pose a higher risk to pedestrians. Experts suggest charging higher registration rates for heavier vehicles—a policy being considered in California—could discourage the proliferation of massive trucks and SUVs.

As Kolbert points out, replacing gas-powered cars with electric ones will only be a stopgap that reduces carbon emissions but creates other serious impacts on the environment and public safety. “Better still would be to ditch cars altogether.”