SUV sales will skyrocket in 2022, a trend that makes it much harder to hit global climate goals, experts say. And while car buyers flocked to electric SUVs along with their gas-guzzling counterparts, full-size EVs pose their own environmental challenges.
Bigger is the opposite of better.
However, SUVs outperformed their smaller counterparts in 2022. While overall auto sales plunged last year by about 0.5 percent, SUV sales grew 3 percent. They made up a whopping 46 percent of global car sales.
That popularity means more pollution. Carbon dioxide emissions from SUVs around the world are close to reaching a huge threshold: nearly a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to a recent study. analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA). For comparison’s sake, that’s almost double the climate pollution the UK pumped out. in 2021. While the demand for oil to power passenger cars other than SUVs was flat between 2021 and 2022, global oil consumption for SUVs grew by 500,000 barrels per day.
To prevent climate change from getting significantly worse, those numbers need to be drastically reduced. Meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement it requires countries to cut their climate pollution in half by the end of the decade and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Transportation is a major source of climate pollution; is responsible for approximately one room of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve the goals outlined in the Paris agreement, around 60 percent of vehicles sold by 2030 would need to be electric, the IEA has previously noted. traced.
Many more people are buying electric vehicles: sales are up 60% in 2022. And for the first time, electric SUVs accounted for just over half of all electric vehicles sold last year. Not surprising, considering automakers are adding many more electric SUVs to their lineups. Approximately 55 percent of the more than 400 electric car models available are SUVs.
Electric SUVs in particular complicate the transition to clean energy
The caveat is that electric SUVs in particular complicate the transition to clean energy. Automakers are already struggling to get enough raw materials for electric vehicles, which are typically made with about six times mineral inputs like a conventional car. Critical minerals needed to make lithium-ion batteries are in limited supply and concentrated in a handful of locations, making the supply chain vulnerable to political and economic volatility. When you build a bigger vehicle, you also magnify those problems.
Keep in mind that electric vehicles are not a silver bullet for transportation pollution. Electric vehicles still create particulate pollution from tire wear, brake wear and road wear, which is really bad for air quality. Heavier cars tend to create more of this type of pollution. Regular electric vehicles already tend to be heavier than gas-powered cars, and SUVs again amplify this problem.
In general, if automakers reduce the size of their vehicles, there will be huge environmental benefits. It’s an easy way to relieve pressure on supply chains and minimize vehicle pollution.
