SUV will go out of fashion because their drivers are seen as ‘terrorists’, Citroen boss says

SUVs will die out because those who drive oversized 4x4s are seen as ‘terrorists’, Citroën’s boss said.

Vincent Cobee said the rise of electric cars will “kill” SUVs because the huge vehicles are too heavy when you add a battery.

Referring to many people’s view that cars are polluting and dangerous in crashes because of their size and weight, he said, “If you live in a big city, five years ago if you dropped off your kids in a big SUV, you’re a human being.” . If you do this, you are a ‘terrorist’.’

Although SUVs account for 50 percent of European car sales, Mr Cobee said their days are numbered, adding: “The world of SUVs is over.”

He said: ‘If your aerodynamics are wrong on a battery EV, the penalty in terms of range is huge.

“You can lose 50 kilometers between good and bad aerodynamics, and between an SUV and a saloon you are very easily talking about 60/70/80 kilometers.”

Increasing the battery to increase range isn’t always an option, he said, predicting governments will take action against the vehicles, a trend already underway in France, which is beginning to weigh on weight.

Vincent Cobee said the rise of electric cars will ‘kill’ SUVs because the massive vehicles are too heavy when you add a battery

“People will start limiting the weight and size of the batteries, either through taxation, through incentives, through regulation, through naming and shaming,” he said.

‘The A-segment has been killed off by regulations, [and] The d [SUV] segment will be killed by aerodynamics and weight.”

The weight gain is just not acceptable, says Cobée.

He added: ‘In the 1970s a car weighed 700 kg.

‘Today an average car weighs 1300 kg. Tomorrow an average car will weigh two tons.

“So we’re using three times more resources to deliver the same service, just to be ‘green’.”

Mr Cobée’s remarks come only a few weeks later the British Parking Association (BPA) warned that electric cars could cause ‘catastrophic’ damage to multi-storey and underground car parks due to their weight.

The British Parking Association has called for a nationwide structural review of multi-storey and underground car parks over concerns about the increasing weight of vehicles as drivers move to heavy battery electric cars

In December it called on local authorities to urgently conduct structural surveys of facilities to ensure they are sufficient to handle the increase in the number of heavier vehicles using them.

Most of the country’s 6,000 multi-storey and underground facilities were built to guidelines based on the weight of popular 1976 cars, including the Mk 3 Ford Cortina.

But the electric cars currently on the UK market are much bigger. For example, the best-selling Tesla Model 3 weighs 2.2 tons fully loaded, making it more than 50 percent heavier than a 1.4-ton Cortina.

Structural engineer Chris Whapples, a member of the BPA who represents car park owners, said: ‘If a vehicle is heavier than the car park was originally designed for, the consequences could be catastrophic. We haven’t had an incident yet, but I suspect it’s only a matter of time.

‘We have advised to carry out a load check at all older car parks. And the industry is responding.’

The heaviest electric SUV on sale in Britain weighs FOUR TONNES

A 2022 report raised concerns that the increasing weight of larger electric SUV models could potentially cause owners to violate existing driver’s license rules.

It’s because the giant Hummer Electric is now sold to customers through a UK dealer who imports them from the US for £320,000 each.

The vehicle weighs a whopping 4,103 kg – that’s almost three 1976 Ford Cortinas.

The battery pack alone weighs 1,326kg, which is heavier than a Ford Fiesta sold in showrooms today.

This behemoth of a pick-up weighs a whopping 4,103 kg. To put it in perspective, that’s almost two Range Rovers

And this colossal weight will pose a legal problem for any driver under 42 years of age purchasing one, as they’ll have to pass an additional test to legally get behind the wheel.

A normal driver’s license is simply not suitable for a vehicle of this tonnage.

For those who passed their test after January 1997 and hold a conventional ‘Category B’ car driving licence, the maximum legal mass (MAM) of a vehicle is 3.5 tonnes – you can read more about MAM here.

Anything above that weight – such as the 4.1-tonne Hummer EV – means a conventional driver’s license becomes invalid and a ‘Category C1’ truck license is the legal requirement.

You can only achieve this by taking a separate driving test to demonstrate your ability to drive a vehicle up to 7.5 tons.

It won’t be a problem for older drivers who passed their exam before January 1997; they have automatic rights – known as ‘grandfather rights’ – to drive vehicles up to 7.5 tons, as they were given the C1 right when they passed.