Where SUVs are Most Popular

While SUVs are known for being particularly bad for the environment, they are a popular choice for European drivers, with every tenth car being an SUV in Germany. Statista’s Global Consumer Survey found that across fifteen European countries surveyed, SUVs are most popular in Switzerland, where 19 percent of respondents' principal car is an SUV, followed by Belgium at 18 percent, and Norway at 17 percent. The UK is slightly below the European average, at 14 percent.

Even though the numbers are below average in the UK, a group of activists still aims to tackle this perceived problem in their own way. According to Sky News, the self-proclaimed ‘Tyre Extinguishers’, have said they will deflate the tyres of 10,000 SUVs by the end of the year in the UK, to put a stop to cars that are “a disaster for our health, our public safety and our climate.” According to reports, the group has also been active across Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the U.S. and New Zealand.

The group cites the International Energy Agency (iea) on their website, writing that in 2019 “SUVs [were] the second-largest cause of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions over the past decade - more than shipping, aviation, heavy industry and even trucks. The increasing pace of SUV buying is cancelling out all the carbon savings from people switching to electric cars. If SUV drivers were a country, it would be the sixth-largest emitter in the world.”

According to the iea, the global fleet of SUVs rose from under 50 million in 2010 to around 320 million in 2021. To put this into perspective, that’s the equivalent of Europe’s entire car fleet.