Which would Ms. T choose?
Whether you’re talking about making, fueling, or maintaining, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) spew at least 50% more carbon than cars. This is comparing apples to apples, i.e. compact SUVs vs compact cars, midsize SUVs vs midsize cars, full size SUVs vs full size cars.
Let’s start where the rubber meets the road. A tire is a tire is a tire, right? Wrong. Drive a heavier vehicle and you need a (much) heavier tire. SUVs weigh more than cars. Compact SUVs weigh over 20% more than compact cars, full-size SUVs weigh over 40% more than full-size cars. To carry the extra mass, SUV tires weigh about twice as much as car tires.
Then there’s the carbon produced when you operate the vehicle.
To get you to your destination SUVs typically burn twice as much gas as a car. It takes more energy to move all that mass around. If SUV gas tanks were the same size as car gas tanks SUV drivers would have to fill up twice a week, instead of once a week as is typical for car drivers. And so people are fooled into thinking SUV mileage is kinda sorta comparable to car mileage. However, burn more gas, generate more carbon. Burn twice as much gas, generate twice as much carbon. Nature cannot be fooled.
Which brings us to maintenance, and back to tires. The greater weight of SUVs also means they wear out tires faster than cars. A typical SUV wears out a set of tires in less than half the time it takes a car to wear out its set of tires. Those heavier SUV replacement tires generate twice as much carbon in the manufacturing process too.
It all adds up, The carbon footprint of SUVs is much bigger. And so, they deserve no love.
Megawatts & Negawatts 