Cars are getting wider by 1 cm every 2 years; EU NGO urges size cap especially for large SUVs
Arvind · Jan 25, 2024 12:00 PM
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Transport & Environment (T&E), Europe's leading NGO campaigning for cleaner and safer mobility has urged European lawmakers to institute size restrictions on new cars – primarily SUVs – which have simply gotten too big for most populated European cities.
The NGO add "Lawmakers have a chance to improve safety on the streets of major European cities by reevaluating the width limits for new cars. Over half of new vehicles are too wide for many on-street parking spaces as cars continue to expand by 1 cm every two years.”
According to its research, the average width of new cars expanded to 180.3 cm in the first half of 2023, up from 177.8 cm in 2018. In fact, the widest 3 percent of new passenger car registrations in the first half of 2023 in Europe exceed 192.1 cm. Even off-street parking is now a tight squeeze for the average new car (180 cm), while large luxury SUVs with a width of 200 cm no longer fit.
New cars in the EU are subject to the same maximum width, 255 cm, as buses and trucks. T&E said that unless the EU width limit for cars is reviewed and cities impose higher parking charges, large SUVs and pick-ups will likely continue to expand to the cap meant for trucks.
James Nix, Vehicles Policy Manager at T&E, said: “Cars have been getting wider for decades and that trend will continue until we set a stricter limit. Currently, the law allows new cars to be as wide as trucks. The result has been big SUVs and American-style pick-up trucks parking on our footpaths and endangering pedestrians, cyclists and everyone else on the road.”
According to T&E’s research, among the top 100 models in 2023, 52 percent of vehicles sold were too wide for the minimum specified on-street parking space (180 cm) in major European cities, including London, Paris and Rome.
Off-street parking is now a tight squeeze even for the average new car (180 cm wide), while large luxury SUVs no longer fit. Measuring around 200 cm wide, large luxury SUVs leave too little space for car occupants to get in and out of vehicles in typical off-street spaces (240 cm).
The growth in size has been most egregious amongst large luxury SUVs. As examples, the Land Rover Defender grew by 20.6 cm over its predecessor and the BMW X5 grew by 6 cm in just six years and the Volvo EX90 grew by 4.1 cm over the XC90.
Furthermore, T&E rightfully points out that carmakers use the growth of their largest SUVs to also expand the width of vehicles in the midsize and compact segments. Thus, essentially all vehicles are becoming wider.
The trend toward wider vehicles has also required the height of vehicles to be raised, to preserve the vehicle’s height and width ratio, which T&E says also brings a higher risk of fatalities in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists. Recent crash data showed a 10 cm increase in the height of vehicle fronts carries a 30 percent higher risk of fatalities in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.
Parisians will soon vote on tripling parking fees for big SUVs. Image
Several European cities have already introduced more restrictive parking rules for SUVs. Coming up soon Parisians will take a vote on whether parking fees should be tripled for particularly heavy vehicles. If approved, new measures in the French capital would set an important precedent for many other European cities that are considering similar changes.
Arvind can't remember a time when he didn't wheel around a HotWheels car. This love evolved into an interest in Tamiya and RC cars and finally the real deal 1:1 scale stuff. Passion finally lead to formal training in Mechanical Engineering. Instead of the bigger picture, he obsesses with the final drive ratio and spring rates of cars and spends the weekends wondering why a Perodua Myvi is so fast.
