SUV
A sport utility vehicle is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definition of an SUV, and usage of the term varies between countries. Thus, it is "a loose term that traditionally covers a broad range of vehicles with four-wheel drive." Some definitions claim that an SUV must be built on a light truck chassis; however, broader definitions consider any vehicle with off-road design features to be an SUV. A crossover SUV is often defined as an SUV built with a unibody construction ; however, the designations are increasingly blurred because of the capabilities of the vehicles, the labelling by marketers, and the electrification of new models.
The predecessors to SUVs date back to military and low-volume models from the late 1930s, and the four-wheel-drive station wagons and carryalls that began to be introduced in 1949. Some SUVs produced today use unibody construction; however, in the past, more SUVs used body-on-frame construction. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the popularity of SUVs significantly increased, often at the expense of the popularity of large sedans and station wagons. SUVs accounted for 45.9% of the world's passenger car market in 2021.
SUVs have been criticized for a variety of environmental and safety-related reasons. They generally have poorer fuel efficiency and require more resources to manufacture than smaller vehicles, contributing more to climate change and environmental degradation. Between 2010 and 2018, SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the global increase in carbon emissions worldwide. Their higher center of gravity increases their risk of rollovers. Their higher front-end profile makes them at least twice as likely to kill pedestrians they hit. Additionally, the psychological sense of security they provide influences drivers to drive less cautiously, and may in-turn, cause others with smaller vehicles to opt for SUVs in the future under the sense of security, all the while increasing the rate of fatalities of pedestrians.
Definitions
There is no universally accepted definition of the sport utility vehicle. Dictionaries, automotive experts, and journalists use varying wordings and defining characteristics, in addition to regional variations of usage by both the media and the general public. The auto industry also has not settled on one definition of the SUV.American English
Automotive websites' descriptions of SUVs range from specifically "combining car-like appointments and wagon practicality with steadfast off-road capability" with "chair-height seats and picture-window visibility" to the more general "nearly anything with available all-wheel drive and raised ground clearance". It is also suggested that the term "SUV" has replaced "jeep" as a general term for off-road vehicles.American dictionary definitions for SUVs include:
- "rugged automotive vehicle similar to a station wagon but built on a light-truck chassis"
- "automobile similar to a station wagon but built on a light truck frame"
- "large vehicle that is designed to be used on rough surfaces but that is often used on city roads or highways"
- "passenger vehicle similar to a station wagon but with the chassis of a small truck and, usually, four-wheel drive"
British English
The Collins English Dictionary defines a sport utility vehicle as a "powerful vehicle with four-wheel drive that can be driven over rough ground. The abbreviation SUV is often used."
Other countries
In Europe, the term SUV is generally used for road-oriented vehicles, described as "J-segment" by the European Commission. "Four-by-four" or the brand name of the vehicle is typically used for off-road-oriented vehicles. Similarly, in New Zealand, vehicles designed for off-road use are typically referred to as "four-wheel drives" instead of SUVs.Government regulations
In the United States, many government regulations simply have categories for "off-highway vehicles" which are loosely defined and often result in SUVs being classified as light trucks. For example, corporate average fuel economy regulations previously included "permit greater cargo-carrying capacity than passenger carrying volume" in the definition for trucks, resulting in cars with removable rear seats, like the PT Cruiser, being classified as light trucks.This classification as trucks allowed SUVs to be regulated less strictly than passenger cars under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act for fuel economy, and the Clean Air Act for emissions. However, from 2004 onwards, the United States Environmental Protection Agency began to hold sport utility vehicles to the same tailpipe emissions standards as cars for criteria pollutants, though not greenhouse gas emissions standards as they were not set until 2010. In 2011, the CAFE regulations were changed to classify small, two-wheel-drive SUVs as passenger cars.
However, the licensing and traffic enforcement regulations in the United States vary from state to state, and an SUV may be classified as a car in some states but as a truck in others. For industry production statistics, SUVs are counted in the light truck product segment.
In India, all SUVs are classified in the "Utility Vehicle" category per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers definitions and carry a 27% excise tax. Those that are long, have a engine or larger, along with of ground clearance, are subject to a 30% excise duty.
In Australia, SUV sales were helped by having lower import duties than passenger cars. Up until January 2010, SUVs were subject to a 5% import tariff, compared with 10% for passenger cars.
Higher parking fee
In February 2024, voters in Paris mandated a triple parking charge rate for SUVs, citing environmental impact and street capacity. It was implemented on 1 October 2024. Visitors driving vehicles over 1,600 kg pay €18 per hour in central Paris and €12 in outer districts; residents and professionals are exempt. This followed similar decisions in Lyon and Tübingen with similar ordinances being considered by London, Brussels and Amsterdam.Characteristics
Chassis
Many years after most passenger cars had transitioned to unibody construction, most SUVs continued to use a separate body-on-frame method, due to being based on the chassis from a light truck, commercial vehicle, pickup truck, or off-road vehicle.The first mass-produced unibody four-wheel-drive passenger car was the Russian 1955 GAZ-M20 Pobeda M-72, which could be considered the first crossover car. The 1977 Lada Niva was the first off-road vehicle to use both a unibody construction and a coil-sprung independent front suspension. The relatively compact Niva is considered a predecessor to the crossover SUV and combines a hatchback-like passenger car body with full-time four-wheel drive, low-range gearing, and lockable center differential.
Nonetheless, unibody SUVs remained rare until the 1984 Jeep Cherokee was introduced and became a sales success. The introduction of the 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee resulted in many of Jeep's SUV models using unibody construction, with many other brands following suit since the mid-1990s. Today, most SUVs in production use a unibody construction and relatively few models continue to use body-on-frame construction.
Body style
SUVs are typically of a two-box design similar to a station wagon. The engine compartment is in the front, followed by a combined passenger/cargo area.Up until approximately 2010, many SUV models were available in two-door body styles. Since then, manufacturers began to discontinue the two-door models as the four-door models became more popular.
A few two-door SUVs remain available, such as the body-on-frame Suzuki Jimny, Mahindra Thar, Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, Ford Bronco, and Jeep Wrangler as well as the Range Rover Evoque crossover SUV.
Safety
SUVs typically have high ground clearance and a tall body. This results in a high center of mass, which made SUVs more prone to roll-over accidents. In 2003, SUVs were quoted as 2.5 times more likely to roll over in a crash than regular cars.Between 1991 and 2001, the United States saw a 150% increase in sport-utility vehicle rollover deaths. In 2001, though roll-overs constituted just 3% of vehicle crashes overall, they caused over 30% of occupant fatalities in crashes; and in crashes where the vehicle did roll over, SUV occupants in the early 2000s were nearly three times as likely to be killed as other car passengers. Vehicles with a high center of gravity do sometimes fail the moose test of maneuverability conducted by Swedish consumer magazine Teknikens Värld, for example, the 1997 Mercedes-Benz A-Class and 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The increasing popularity of SUVs in the 1990s and early 2000s was partly due to buyers perceiving that SUVs provide greater safety for occupants, due to their larger size and raised ride height. Regarding the safety of other road users, SUVs are exempted from U.S. regulation stating that a passenger car bumper must protect the area between above the ground. This often increases the damage to the other car in a collision with an SUV, because the impact occurs at a higher location on the other car. In 2000–2001, 60% of fatal side-impact collisions were where the other vehicle was an SUV, an increase from 30% in 1980–1981.
The introduction of electronic stability control and rollover mitigation, as well as increased analysis of the risks of a rollover, led the IIHS to report in 2015 that "the rollover death rate of 5 per million registered vehicle years for 2011 models is less than a quarter of what it was for 2004 models. With ESC dramatically reducing rollover risk, the inherent advantages offered by SUVs' greater size, weight, and height emerge more clearly. Today's SUVs have the lowest driver death rate of any vehicle type."
The high danger for cyclists and pedestrians of being seriously injured or even killed by SUV drivers has caused some public protests against SUVs in urban areas. In 2020, a study by the U.S.-based IIHS found that, of a sample of 79 crashes from three urban areas in Michigan, SUVs caused more serious injuries compared to cars when impacts occurred at greater than. The IIHS noted the sample size of the study was small and that more research is needed. The popularity of SUVs contributed to an increase in pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. during the 2010s, alongside other factors such as distracted and drunk driving.
A 2021 study by the University of Illinois Springfield showed that SUVs are 8 times more likely to kill children in a collision than passenger cars, and multiple times more lethal to adult pedestrians and cyclists.