Americans, as you may have noticed, likes to replace things. Soda cans are larger here, just like hotel rooms, houses and cars. Here in the US, gigantic pick -ups and SUVs are the norm; Visit every school during the collection and you will probably see Chevrolet Tahoes, Jeep Grand Wagoneers and Ford expeditions in the Carpool line. It would be easy to choose on the GMC Hummer EV because it is huge; The battery alone is as heavy as a Honda Civic. But the Hummer EV is so great to drive that it gets a pass.
According to a report from the EPA, the average vehicle footprint expanded by six percent between 2008 and 2023, a ‘historical high’. James Jenkins, head of product planning for Honda and Acura vehicles at American Honda, says that customers in America want more room for their things, so that the brand wants to offer it.
“Larger cars, just like the agreement, are more comfortable to drive on long journeys with the longer wheel bases, which lends itself to the driving habits in the US,” says Jenkins.
Larger roads and cheaper fuel
There are two important reasons why vehicles are larger in the US, says Ed Kim, the president of Automotive Marketing Research Autopacific. “Eventually it comes down to the price of fuel,” he says. “Of course, we Americans complain about the price of gasoline, but the reality is that gasoline is loaded much less than almost any other country in the world.”
In other words, he explains, cheap fuel enables Americans to control much larger vehicles and less fuel -efficient vehicles compared to drivers in most other parts of the world. According to the company prediction site KiplingerA Gallon gas cost $ 3.75 in the US last summer that with the costs per gallon in the UK ($ 6.98), Singapore ($ 7.64) or Hong Kong (no less than $ 12.16!).
Related, American roads are designed to accommodate the larger vehicles that we have because of the cheaper fuel that we have had historic. Streets are wide and even most parking spaces are large to house larger vehicles.
Europe was developed for America, the paved streets designed for pedestrians and horses. If you have never traveled along a narrow road in Portugal in a Range Rover SV, which is 6-foot, 8-inch wide without the mirrors, I can promise you that the walls feel very close. That is an important reason why cars in countries such as France, Spain and Italy are so small; It is much less stressful to control a Volkswagen Polo or Dacia Sandero through tight roads that would be called generous alleys in the US
As car manufacturers develop more economically hybrids and EVs, the size is less important than ever.
“We are at a stage where you can get larger products with little impact on fuel consumption,” Jenkins is agreement.
Last year’s EPA report showed promising for the future of the environment, since new technologies for reducing emissions come to light: “Provisional data suggest that the average new CO2 emission percentage and fuel consumption in the model year 2024 will continue to improve,” the report will continue to grow “.
The perception of safety
I have heard more parents say that they want their new teenage driver to have a large SUV or truck because “it is safer in a crash.” The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Back -up of that idea, which states that a larger, heavier vehicle offers better crash protection than a smaller, lighter (out of no other differences between them). The area of the car between the front bumper and the cabin is designed to absorb energy from crashes by crumpled. Longer front -ends offer better protection with frontal crashes, and, says the IIHS, heavier vehicles also continue to improve in crashes with lighter vehicles and other obstacles, so passengers are subject to less power.
“Large vehicles are not as big for people in small vehicles as before,” says the IIHS. “A lighter vehicle will always be at a disadvantage in a collision with a heavier vehicle. But in recent years, car manufacturers have reduced the threat that SUVs and pickups pose by lowering their energy-absorbent structures so that they stand in line with those in cars.”
It becomes a cycle: as more people buy larger cars, the tendency to want to match the size. This is especially the case in suburbs (ie the large SUV of the suburbs of Chevy in neighborhoods throughout America), where there are more space and larger driveways.
Companies like Telo Make small, city-sized electric trucks to fulfill the niche question in the US for those who want something a bit together.
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