With global heating, why are more SUVs sold?

More and more sports utilities (SUV) are visible on the roads – and outside – roads.

This is despite the forecasts of the United Nations organization for inevitable rotation to smaller and more environmentally friendly vehicles due to the urgency of the climate crisis and increasing costs of life.

This rotation has not happened: worldwide 54% of cars sold in 2024 are SUVs, including gasoline, diesel, hybrids and electric brands. This is an increase of three percentage points of 2023 and five percentage points from the previous year, according to GlobaldataS

Of the SUVs that are now on the road – both new and older models – 95% burn fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

However, manufacturers say that their new fleets of such cars are becoming more and more electric and that not all SUVs that are now sold cause an increase in emissions.

SUV is hard to miss. They are heavy and larger with a spacious interior, higher ground clearance and a high driving position with a better road view, although the market is also smaller.

Environmental campaigns like Greenpeace view SUVS as one of the villains of the climate crisis and claim that their production consumes significant resources, given their size.

Experts also say that they require larger batteries to power their electrical versions, which then further increases the demand for critical minerals, exerting even more exertion on the planet.

Inertation is thought to have smaller, energy-efficient electric vehicles. But sales of standard -size electric vehicles (EVS) has actually declined in major markets such as Japan and Germany, and their sales growth has slowed in India.

And in Europe, SUV sales have outpaced EVs, despite the testimony more than half a decade ago in the opposite trend. In Europe, in 2018 GlobaldataS

The sales forecast manager Sami Chan said: “This is partly due to the alternatives of SUVs offered in a fewer (sizes), whose sales in Europe have already grown to almost 2.5 million in 2024 from 1.5 million in 2018.”

China scored the largest sales of nearly 11.6 million SUVs in 2024, followed by the United States, India and Germany, according to Globaldata.

Industry experts say that people’s purchasing power is improving in a very fast embodiment, making the SUVs likely more likely to choose a car.

“Manufacturers are responding to consumer demand and more and more drivers are attracted by dual -purpose vehicles, given their practicality, comfort and good view of the road,” says Mike Hose, who is the CEO of the Society and Merchants Society (SMMT).

Automobile analysts also say that manufacturers are attracted by high SUV profit margins: they can earn more SUV money, although they make less vehicles.

“It is the industry that has sparked demand through huge marketing and advertising campaigns in recent years,” says Dudley Curtis, a communication manager at the European Transport Safety Council.

“The SUVs offered the industry a simple way to charge more for a vehicle that does the same (like others),” he said.

Due to the stable growth of SUVS sales, Mea says the oil consumption of these vehicles has increased by 600,000 barrels per day globally between 2022 and 2023, representing more than a quarter of the total annual increase in global demand for oil.

“If it is ranked among the countries, the SUVS World Navy will be the fifth CO2 emitter in the world, exceeding the emissions of Japan and various other major economies,” says the apostol Petropol, an energy modulator with MSE.

The agency says that even compared to medium -sized vehicles operating on gasoline and diesel, SUV burns 20% more than such fuels as they weigh up to 300 kg more.

In fact, road transport is responsible for more than 12% of global carbon emissions, which is the main engine of global warming. Scientists say all sectors should quickly decarbonize if we want to avoid the air conditioning catastrophe.

But industry representatives say in response that not all SUVs that are now sold cause an increase in emissions.

“About two of these (new) vehicle models are zero emissions, as their body type is well -electrified with a longer battery range, which can soothe consumers concerned about billing accessibility,” says Hose of SMMT.

“This has led to the average CO2 emissions of new dual -purpose cars more than halfway through 2000, which helps the segment lead the decarbonisation of mobility on the United Kingdom Road.”

Although the bigger part of the new SUVs still burns fossil fuels, IEA employees said more than 20% of SUVs sold in 2023 were completely electric, compared to 2% in 2018.

As for the hybrids that can operate both on electricity and fossil fuels, a study in Europe from the International Pure Transport Council in 2022 found that only about 30% of the total distance operated by hybrid electric vehicles of plugins (all types, including SUV), is in an average mode.

Similar results have been found in other major economies such as the US and China.

In general, the rear gear to the SUV, according to some experts, caused significant failure in the decarbonisation of the transport sector.

“The tendency to more heavy and less efficient vehicles such as SUVs (in countries where it happens) has largely invalidated improvements in energy consumption and emissions achieved elsewhere in the passenger car’s world fleet,” IEA said.

The Committee for Climate Change in the United Kingdom Parliament had a similar finding in its 2024 report on decarbonisation in the country.