If you’ve been looking for a nifty, fuel-efficient compact car lately, you’ll find them harder to find than snow in July.
But the options are endless if you’re in the market for a gas-guzzling SUV or truck.
And that’s no coincidence, folks.
Auto-makers in Canada and the US, taking advantage of loopholes in emission regulations, have quietly phased out once popular, fuel-sipping vehicles like the Toyota Yaris, Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, and Chevrolet Bolt.
They’ve shifted their focus to bigger vehicles.
Why, you ask?
Simply put, there’s more demand, fatter profit margins, and more money to be made – climate change be damned.
SUV Sales Soaring
A study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that SUVs comprised almost half of global vehicle sales in 2023.
The IEA, which provides recommendations, analysis, and research data on the world’s energy use to 44 countries, found that car dealers sold a whopping 20 million SUVs in developed countries like ours. For the first time, this accounted for more than half of all cars sold.
The stats from our home turf, Canada, were even more startling.
According to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, a staggering 86 percent of all vehicles sold in Canada this past May were classified as SUVs or pickup trucks.
Here’s the real kicker. SUVs weigh between 200 and 300 kilograms more than your average medium-sized car and emit roughly 20 percent more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
These heavier, less fuel-efficient cars, whether gas or electric, consume more energy, contributing to carbon pollution and leading to warming and disasters like droughts, fires, and floods.
Because they are bigger, SUVs and trucks also increase demand for primary metals and critical minerals needed for battery production, which itself has a carbon footprint.
If all the SUVs were a country, they’d collectively be the world’s fifth-largest greenhouse gas polluter—more than Japan!
A Little History
During the 1970s, when oil prices first went skyward, the US government started requiring automakers to reduce average emissions across their entire fleets.
The CBC reported that the auto industry found ways to circumvent these emission regulations.
The emissions rules had loopholes. Car companies could offset the heavy emissions of bigger gas guzzlers with a selection of more fuel-efficient small cars.
At the same time, demand for SUVs began to grow among less price-conscious consumers.
When oil prices dropped in the 1980s, SUV and pickup truck-craving drivers dove in, and automakers were more than happy to oblige.
Along the way, some very clever marketing has been aimed at shaping tastes for vehicles that can move more people and stuff, appear ‘safer,’ drive anywhere, and make car companies more money.
As the number of trucks and SUVs surrounding us increased, it’s led to an “arms race” where drivers feel they need a bigger and bigger vehicle to feel safe on the road.
“It plays to this reptilian brain that I think automakers did with SUVs and pickups, to basically say, ‘Wouldn’t you rather be … the biggest person on the road?'” David Zipper of the MIT Mobility Initiative told CBC.
Stats from Car Deal Canada show that the Toyota RAV4 was the top-selling SUV in Canada last year for the 7th year in a row, followed by the Honda CR-V and Ford Escape.
New vehicle sales trends in Alberta are telling.
According to the provincial government, sales of passenger cars and trucks tracked more or less evenly between 1985 and 2005. Starting in 2005 and dramatically after 2010, truck sales began taking a big bite out of market share while car sales fell.
In 2024, nearly 20,000 new trucks were sold, while less than 3,000 new cars hit the roads in Alberta.
Even though many consumers would prefer a smaller car, Zipper told CBC they’re “being pushed toward larger ones.”
He calls it a “prisoner’s dilemma.”
At a time when Canadians should be doing our part to cut transportation emissions dramatically, automakers have other planet-warming plans. And most of us are happy to fork over extra bucks to help them do so.
The 2024 Toyota RAV4 is marketed as “the compact SUV that ignites your desire to explore.” But at what cost to our planet?
