Study sounds alarm: Our cars were so fat

Ever bigger, ever heavier: our cars are overweight. The main reason is the great appetite for SUVs and electric cars (BEV). This is according to new data from the French consultancy firm Inovev.

Accordingly, since the year 2000, the cars produced in Europe have become an average of seven centimeters higher. They grew ten centimeters wide and even twenty centimeters long. And they gained a whopping 20 percent weight.

Status: year 2022

In Europe, SUVs now account for 40 percent of total production – massively advertised by the manufacturers who make billions in profits from the expensive cars. Electrified cars account for a quarter (25 percent). The share of SUVs in registrations has increased fifteenfold since 2000, from three percent in 2000 to 46 percent last year. That was 5.2 million vehicles. In the US, customers bought 7.6 million SUVs last year and in China a whopping 11.2 million.

The criticism of these heavyweights flared up again and again. The German Association of Cities recently reached an agreement. The association of some 3,400 cities and municipalities is demanding higher parking rates for SUVs and other oversized cars. It is “obvious to allocate the actual costs for parking and driving to the large vehicles”, says General Manager Helmut Dedy. On the other hand, there is something absurd about widening parking spaces or converting parking garages.