SUVs now outsell passenger cars three to one, even as petrol prices have risen. What's driving our love of large vehicles, asks Peter Martin, and how can we make them cheaper and safer?
Yet we're buying them at a rate that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago.As recently as 2012, more than half the new vehicles sold in Australia were "passenger cars" — the standard low-slung cars of the type we were used to. About one-quarter were SUVs.
Standard passenger cars sit closer to the ground, are usually lighter, and are less likely to kill or seriously injureAustralians love big cars, and it's undoing the good work of the shift to more electric and hybrid vehicles.rather than two. They are also just as likely to be used for moving families as equipment, even if bought with small businesses
Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics refers to this as the "other side of the coin". I am not suggesting that danger from SUVs is the only reason for the flood of buyers switching to SUVs. But I am suggesting it has helped contribute to a snowballing in demand for SUVs, along with fashion, and changed views about what's normal.
Peter Martin is visiting fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. This article originally appeared onAs Australia grapples with a big-car 'arms race', will petrol prices push people away from combustion engines?
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