Small is beautiful; Size does matter
Ginny Colling was passionate about the environment before retiring from teaching college communications students. After retiring she trained with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and has presented to numerous groups about the climate crisis.
Fun fact: Canadians drive the largest, most gas guzzling vehicles in the world and produce the most emissions per km driven. That’s according to a 2019 report by the International Energy Agency.
But by 2035, all new vehicles sold here will be electric. That should help the climate crisis, right?
Going from gas guzzling to electron guzzling won’t help us reduce electricity consumption, which we need to do to power all of those EVs. And the larger the vehicle, the bigger the battery, and the more natural resources it requires. The battery alone of an electric Hummer weighs about the same as an entire Honda Civic. Because of its weight, to travel 100 km the Hummer EV burns through more than double the energy used by a smaller EV like the Chevy Bolt.
The bigger the electric truck or SUV, the more power it uses. A study in Science Direct found that for every one per cent increase in weight there’s a one per cent increase in electricity consumed.
The trend to larger vehicles like SUVs and trucks really took off after 2000. Vehicle manufacturers realized they could make more money selling megacars, in part because of something called the “light truck exemption” in the U.S. that meant SUVs and light trucks have lower fuel economy standards.
So, they ramped up marketing efforts. They convinced us that we need a big vehicle for all that off-roading on mountain trails that we do. In reality, most of us probably spend much more time carrying groceries, kids and their gear, or a briefcase. (Note: I am not talking about work trucks, SUVs or vans.)
All those lifestyle ads worked. Today “light trucks” – which include SUVs – make up 80 per cent of new car sales in Canada, up from about half of sales a decade ago.
That focus on megacars is continuing with electric vehicles. GM recently announced that it is discontinuing production of the Chevy Bolt, its best-selling EV, by the end of the year. The company is going to concentrate its efforts on – you guessed it – making electric trucks.
People say they feel safer in a truck or SUV, so more buy them. While there is some truth to the safety factor – if a car collides with a truck, the truck generally wins – that’s not the case for a vehicle rollover. In that case, the driver of an SUV or truck is twice as likely to be killed.
And outside of that large vehicle, pedestrians are big losers. They are two to three times more likely to die than if hit by a car. Bigger vehicles also have bigger blind spots, so alarms have been raised in the U.S. about increasing pedestrian deaths, including among youngsters. One study lined up children in front of a large SUV. The driver only saw the ninth child.
What’s a poor environmentally-conscious driver to do? You can help with our energy evolution and save money by putting a smaller electric vehicle on your wish list. And maybe write GM and tell them what you think of them discontinuing the Bolt, which was rated the top EV of 2023 by Edmunds.
Remember, when it comes to vehicles, size does matter, and small is beautiful.
Car manufacturers love people like you. You were suckered into buying an EV ( much more expensive than car with gas engine, and half the life expectancy) PLUS you have to buy a second vehicle (one with a gas engine) so you can actually drive more than 100kms from home. Also — look at research that shows EVs leave a larger carbon footprint then traditional vehicles, from time of manufacturing until time of disposal. EVs are anything but ‘green’ ….Look at the working conditions in the mines where metals are dug up for your precious EV…And you’re advising the rest of us ?????