Booming SUV sales stall green benefits of electric cars

A BOOM in the popularity of SUVS in Europe threatens to cancel out the environmental benefits from the growth in electric cars, campaigners have warned.

The pressure group Transport & Environment, which represents European non-profit organisations, said that 39 per cent of cars bought in the first half of 2020 were sport utility vehicles (SUVS), up from four per cent in 2001.

The report praised a growth in electric car sales, which reached eight per cent of the market in the first half of this year.

But it said the figures “mask successive failures to cut vehicle CO2 emissions over the past few years,” as carmakers pushed polluting but lucrative SUVS.

Long popular in the US, large cars have become increasingly prevalent in Europe and China.

“The sales of higher emitting SUV models are booming, and even larger cars previously seen in the US – pickup trucks – are slowly making their way i nto already congested European roads,” the report said.

This year the EU is phasing in a fleetwide emissions target for new cars of 95g carbon dioxide per kilometre. Topselling luxury SUVS including the Mercedes GLE and the Audi Q8 emit double this level.

Separately, i ntergovernmental organisation, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said that a growing European preference for gas-guzzling SUVS could help reverse the fall in oil demand caused by the pandemic.

Profit margins are larger on bigger, heavier cars, but they are also considerably worse in terms of carbon emissions. Last year the IEA found that SUVS were the second largest factor contributing to the growth in carbon emissions between 2000 and 2018.