Today’s automotive market continues on its path to electrification. Sales of 100% electric models remain weak in absolute terms, but they are starting to become significant (13% of new car purchases in France in 2022). They should logically continue to increase over the coming years, helped by the continuous development of the charging network, the enrichment of the offer of manufacturers and government measures within the Old Continent. For Vincent Cobée, the director of Citroën interviewed by English journalists fromAuto Expressthis rise of the electric car will also kill SUVs.
“The world of SUVs is almost over. I know that for the moment, the sales figures do not say that at all, but I think that will quickly change. », he says. For him, it is the inferior efficiency of SUVs that will eventually kill them: “on an electric car, the loss of range is significant if your aerodynamics are poor. The loss is 50 kilometers between good aerodynamics and a poorly designed car at this level and if you look at the difference between a sedan and an SUV, you can quickly measure a difference of 70 or 80 km ”he recalls.
Large batteries soon to be frowned upon?
The current market solution is to install increasingly larger batteries on new electric SUVs to compensate. But Vincent Cobée thinks that this technique will become unpopular and even perhaps outright banned: “We install larger batteries in an SUV than in an equivalent sedan. But I think people will soon limit the size of these batteries whether it’s with taxation, purchase advantages or just the very bad public image that should accompany these models in the future. A few years ago, dropping off your children in an SUV in a big city was nothing shocking. Today, you are already sometimes considered a terrorist if you do the same thing”dares Vincent Cobée. “In 1970, a car weighed on average 700 kg. Today, a car weighs on average 1300 kg. Because of electric SUVs, they might weigh two tons tomorrow. We would use three times as many resources in building a car just to sell green cars”.
For Vincent Cobée, there is no doubt: “mini-city cars have been killed by anti-pollution standards, family SUVs will be eliminated by the rise of electric cars”. It must be said that Citroën does not have an electric SUV in its range and that the size of the batteries of its electric models, currently limited to 50 kWh, seems effectively incompatible with a large family SUV. He therefore also preaches for his parish, even if Stellantis plans many electric SUVs in the range of its brands by the end of the decade. But this question of the relevance of offering very heavy cars equipped with huge batteries will probably remain at the heart of discussions in the coming years.
