2024-03-30 08:07:39
Welcome to the patapoufs on wheels! Everything is big and even super big now in our overinflated societies: houses, TV screens, portions of fast-food and the people themselves. So, of course, cars are no exception to the rule: they suffer from “autobesity”.
In 20 years, the mass of standard cars sold in Quebec has increased by nearly 240 kg, which corresponds to 1 kg per month. The North American’s personal vehicle now weighs 1875 kg on average. The Cadillac Escalade ESV ($115,000) extends almost 6 m, for a weight of around 3,000 kg. That’s as much as the Cadillac V-16 Sedan of a century ago, which was already compared to a rolling ocean liner.
“It is worrying to see our automobile fleet growing year following year, not only in the number of cars per person, but also in the size of the vehicles,” says Anne-Catherine Pilon, analyst of sustainable mobility and policies at the environmental organization Équiterre. This situation has an impact on the environment, on passenger safety and on household debt. »
Christian Savard, general director of Vivre en ville, adds that the electrification of the vehicle fleet will not solve the basic problems. “We are not questioning our energy obesity, whether fossil or electrical. Nor do we question the social norm of increasingly bulky and heavy vehicles being established. Households have never been smaller and cars larger than ever. It’s quite special…”
So who is to blame ? The causes range from the multiplication of standard equipment to advertising propaganda through the responsibility of consumers, who justify their choices by the state of the roads, safety, the need for space or the absence of other options, everything simply.
The exponential popularity of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) is also partly explained by taxation and laws that encourage the production, purchase and use of increasingly larger personal vehicles. The State, through its interventions as well as its laissez-faire approach, is proving to be a major accomplice in automobile overweight. Politics also holds the keys to change.
The fault of the oil crisis
Mme Both Pilon and Mr. Savard point out that the American federal laws on the energy performance of vehicles adopted following the oil crisis of 1973 paradoxically stimulated the increase in the size of these vehicles. Washington then imposed severe scales for cars while exempting small trucks weighing less than approximately 4,000 kg so as not to harm small businesses. Manufacturers then offered more and more light trucks (including SUVs) and fewer and fewer small cars.
Quebec and Canada comply with American rules. Gasoline and hybrid pickup trucks (which includes SUVs and minivans) will capture 73% of the market share in 2023. The subcompact segment saw its sales decline by more than a third last year. The number of models decreases from year to year.
This bloated universe will soon be put on forced diet. Washington has just revised its definition of what a light truck is. The gap in maximum permitted emissions between cars (161 g per 100 km) and trucks (276) will be reduced from 71% to 22% by 2032. The change is made to encourage the transfer to electric vehicles.
Équiterre is asking Ottawa to adopt its own rules and eliminate the binary car/small truck classification. “Now that everyone, worker or not, uses the same type of trucks, all vehicles should be in the same class and subject to the same emissions standards,” summarizes Mme Pilon.
Huge, but electric
However, in electric version or not, the fashion for personal vehicles will remain, and even that of large and very large cars, which require more materials (and rare metals) during construction and more energy during travel. The popular Ford F-150 truck is available in a plug-in version. 20,598 copies were sold last year in Quebec, 38% more than the previous year. This is six times more than the number of small cars (3253).
With its Roulez vert program, Quebec has for years granted a subsidy of $7,000 for the purchase of an electric vehicle (and $5,000 for a hybrid version), regardless of its size. The measure will be gradually abolished by 2027, according to an announcement linked to the budget in mid-March, as demanded by environmental groups. In their logic, an eco-friendly car remains an oxymoron. Ottawa still offers $5,000 as an incentive for the purchase of a zero-emission vehicle.
“We will have to arrive at the surcharge on the size of vehicles, whether they are electric or not,” says Christian Savard. Governments are setting an example by taxing small cars a little and large ones a lot. »
In France, vehicles emitting more than 117 g of CO2 per kilometer have been subject to a purchase penalty since January. A Renault Clio (118 g) costs 50 euros more. A BMW X3 hybrid (147 g) costs 1761 euros more. The record belongs to the petrol Audi RS5 V6 (203 g), with a surcharge of 60,000 euros. We specify, in dollars, this sum is equivalent to $90,000, a little more than the selling price of this car in Quebec!
In addition, Quebec and Ottawa have just granted 7 billion in subsidies to the Swedish company Northvolt so that it can build a factory here. It remains to be seen the size of the batteries produced by this future factory. If it powers large individual vehicles, where will the environmental gain be? Some Tesla models use batteries three times heavier than those in a small Nissan Leaf.
“We are going to invest in a factory to produce our batteries, but we are not going to ensure that these batteries are used for this or that type of model, in cars that are as accessible as possible for all Quebecers,” says Mme Pestle. There are so many things that might have been thought of ahead of this. […] We really need to rethink our priorities. There is so much work to be done in town planning and regional development to massively finance our public transport. »
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