The Loophole That Made Cars in America So Big

[Gregski]

I recently parked my 1971 Chevy truck next to a brand new Chevy Suburban SUV in the Panera parking lot and was shocked how it dwarfed my "full sized V8 truck from the early '70s) my truck is no compact or small by any means, yet this behemoth made it look like a short bed Miata.

So I want to share this article with you which summarizes and explains the trend in the US that has been going on for decades, and how auto makers will do anything to avoid meeting emission regulations.


The Loophole That Made Cars in America So Big

[Gregski]

Between 2010 and 2020, 65 million new SUVs hit the roads in America.

In 1980, SUVs made up less than 2% of new car production in America; last year, that number was closer to 50%.

... the growth began in the 1990s when baby boomers demanded bigger cars for their growing families.

And that’s how we ended up in a world where SUVs and trucks make up roughly 70% of the car market.

“We’re providing the vehicles that consumers want,”
Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president for North America, told the New York Times recently.

[Gregski]

The birth of the SUV loophole

In 1975, Congress passed a law that forced automakers to double the average fuel efficiency of their vehicles to 27.5 miles per gallon by 1985. For a few years, the bill worked as intended. The average fuel efficiency of American vehicles went from 13 MPG in 1975 to 19 MPG in 1980.

After leveling off between 1980 and 1985, average fuel efficiency actually fell over the next 20 years. It’s been a half century since Congress passed its first fuel efficiency standard and the average vehicle produced in America still doesn’t get 27.5 MPG.

One of the best opportunities to close the loophole came in 2009 when Obama took office. Then, like the 1970s, gas prices were sky-high. Then, like the 1970s, a new environmental movement was emerging, this time focused on climate change. But when the Obama administration redesigned fuel economy standards they left the loophole open. Since Obama’s fuel economy standards were announced in 2009, the share of SUVs has doubled from about 25% to 50%.

In 2021 another opportunity to close the loophole emerged when the Biden administration designed their fuel economy standards. But once again, regulators failed to close the loophole. Instead they designed standards that allowed trucks and SUVs to put 41% more CO2 into the atmosphere than sedans offering automakers an incentive to produce bigger cars and skirt regulation.

[Gregski]

Absolute Fact: "once Congress passes a law, it is extremely difficult to undo it"

It’s the Law – Really!

"the wierdest and wackiest law is the Washington State law that makes it illegal for any person to ride an ugly horse."

is it that way in your country too? we literally still have laws and regulations for horse drawn carriages in the States because it is too much effort to get rid of them

[Gregski]

The Evil Plan - "auto lobbyists happened"

While efficiency standards for cars would be written into the law itself, the standards for trucks were to be set by regulators at the Transportation Department.

One of the first things that officials at the Transportation Department had to do was define what a truck was in the first place. Automakers convinced them to go with the vague definition of “an automobile capable of off-highway operation.”

Automakers also convinced regulators that any vehicle with a gross vehicle weight above 6,000 pounds should get a carve out.

When these emissions rules were first proposed, a third of vehicles produced had a gross vehicle weight of more than 6,000 pounds. In order to avoid regulations, automakers started producing heavier cars. By the time the rules were finalized and implemented a few years later, two-thirds of cars were heavy enough to avoid the regulations.

In 1978, faced with another oil crisis, Congress passed the “gas guzzler tax.” But lobbyists successfully convinced Congress to exclude the biggest gas guzzlers of them all: trucks. And because SUVs were trucks too, those got the carve out as well.

[Gregski]

Automakers spent billions pushing SUVs

Consumer surveys conducted by automakers at the time found that just a few percent of SUV owners ever took their car off-road.

“The only time those SUVs are going to be off-road is when they miss the driveway at 3 a.m,”
J.C. Collins, a marketing executive at Ford, told Bradsher in High and Mighty.

SUV advertising grew from $172.5 million in 1990 to $1.51 billion in 2000. That decade, automakers and dealers spent a combined $9 billion pushing SUVs on consumers, according to data gathered by Bradsher.

[Gregski]

CONCLUSION ?

[ many of the world’s biggest automakers have announced plans to electrify their vehicles over the coming decades ]

[johu]

I read about this in "the car that could" (thanks SciroccoEV). Pretty dumb.

Not sure how many horse related laws there are in Germany

Automakers ran a similar campaign in the EU but I believe it has less practical impact. Much like freezers or dishwashers a car can have an A-F efficiency label. You'd expect a small car with a 3-cylinder engine consuming 5 l/100 km to have a better label than a big, heavy SUV consuming double that. You could be mistaken - the cars weight is taken into account so your V6 diesel BMW X5 might get a higher efficiency label than your humble Ford Fiesta.

Thankfully nobody cares about this BS still SUVs make up large portions of the new market, including new EVs. European SUVs bears little resemblance with an American one. Even a jacked up Polo is considered an SUV.

[arber333]

I have a feeling legislators in EU and US will soon get the oppurtunity to close that loophole and whatnot because of the current Yemeni blocade of the Red sea straight. Seems like European fuel will get even more expensive. Fingers crossed this will simply provide much needed challenge to stagnating ICE industry.
There are a lot of things that could be done here even before turning completely to EVs.

[EVSwap]

There is more EPA shenanigans on top of that stuff from the 70s. The EPA tied the "footprint" of the vehicle to the MPG requirements. The footprint being the track width x wheelbase. But it's based on a chart that incentivizes larger footprints vs. MPG. So that's why new cars in the last few years have been absolutely massive, not just in weight but in width and length. Cars like the Hellcat, which is incredibly wide which means it can get the MPG of a heavy truck based on the chart.

Maybe we will get a chance to have these small pickups again in the USA if they are EV. Will the automakers actually make something like that? Probably not