Nobody can quite define the SUV, yet it now dominates car sales
In 1975, truck-based SUVs made up under 2 per cent of new light vehicles built for the American market. By 2024 the figure was almost half. Worldwide, SUVs took 45.9 per cent of passenger car sales in 2021, even though there is still no agreed definition of what one is.
Roughly, an SUV blends a road car with off-roader traits such as extra ground clearance and four-wheel drive. Beyond that, usage splits. Some insist it must sit on a light truck chassis; others count anything with off-road styling. Countries draw lines differently: India's tax rules set thresholds for engine size, length and clearance, New Zealand has an off-road passenger class judged partly on approach and departure angles, while Europe treats the SUV as a market segment rather than a legal category. Britain adds the mocking nickname Chelsea tractor.
Ancestors go back to military and small-batch vehicles of the late 1930s and to four-wheel-drive wagons from 1949. For decades most were built body-on-frame, borrowed from trucks. The Russian GAZ-M20 Pobeda M-72 of 1955 was the first mass-produced four-wheel-drive car with a unibody, and the compact Lada Niva of 1977 foreshadowed today's crossovers. The 1984 Jeep Cherokee made unibody construction a hit, and it is now the norm.
Rules helped the boom. Classed as light trucks in the United States, SUVs long faced looser fuel economy and emissions limits, and the 1964 Chicken Tax put a 25 per cent tariff on imported rivals. Only from 2004 did they meet car tailpipe standards for criteria pollutants, and in 2011 small two-wheel-drive models were reclassified as cars. Australia charged them 5 per cent import duty against 10 for cars until 2010. Carmakers, enjoying fatter margins, marketed them with appeals to machismo.
Critics point to heavier fuel use, more resources to build, a higher rollover risk and blind spots that endanger pedestrians. Between 2010 and 2018 they were the second-largest contributor to growth in global carbon emissions. Paris voters responded in 2024 by tripling parking rates for heavy visiting vehicles, following Lyon and Tübingen.
Source: SUV
