Limit new cars by 2026, there, fixed it.
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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I recently read Stellantis wants to push for Kei car regulations in the EU. I'll take a used Nissan Pao.
Just don't adjust parking spaces and fine them for overflowing it. The problem will solve its self very quickly then.
The problem is height not necessarily length or width.
I'd also add some limits on weight or a way to push manfucaturers to make lighter cars. Lethality increases with the mass of the vehicle as well. Average car is 400kg heavier than it was 8 years ago. All the extra mileage wasted on carrying leather couches just to be more lethal when we get into accidents
Not only that. I would make emissions regulations universal instead of separated by car categories. I would only allow larger cars if you really have a need for them such as a large family or work, etc
Much more road wear as weight increases too
stops working on his 4th dimensional car
I swear...
They need to bring back the sporty station wagon/estate. Visibility is better while having the same cargo space as an SUV
The only low nose electric station wagon you can buy today is a Porsche Taycan and that one is not a true station wagon. Since the back is more like a hot hatch.
They need to bring back the sporty station wagon/estate.
Or "soccer mom" cars, there's very little on minivan market today at least here in Finland. My wallet says that I don't drive fully electric for quite some time but about a year ago we had to get rid of our Toyota Previa (too expensive repairs were needed) and there just isn't too much to pick from. With 3 kids and a dog we just can't fit the whole circus in a VW Golf and there's less and less cheap used cars on that category. Sure, if you throw 30-40k⬠to the table then you can get a newer VW Caravelle or MB Viano, but below 5k there just isn't much to choose from. Currently we have Mitsubishi Grandis but with all 7 seats there's not much room for luggage.
We used to have E-class Mercedes (S210) and it could easily fit the whole family (with child seats) and have plenty of room in the trunk for the dog and luggage, but if you try to seat 3 nearly adult sized kids on the Grandis the middle row seat alone is really not comfortable for multi-hour trip. And it's pretty much the same for all the station wagons we've had over the years. Sure, we've had a lot of them, but I think it's better for not just my wallet to get old ones and drive them "to the end".
But even if we use bigger cars none of them has a bonnet you need a ladder to reach. Grandis, Previa, Hyundai Trajet, Renault Espace and Peugeot 807 all had very rounded front end and "normal" height bumpers. That makes services a bit more pain in the rear, but you can easily see what's going on in front of your vehicle.
What makes you say the Taycan Cross/Sport Turismo isn't a true station wagon? Certainly has the utility of one, and markedly more rear cargo space than most hatchbacks
I have one so hopefully I don't sound overly defensive, it's awesome enough that any technicality would be silly to actually quibble over. Just friendly curiosity about the thought!
Edit just to say: the station wagon/estate is the pinnacle of passenger car design, I absolutely adore them and deeply wish we had more of them and fewer crossovers or SUVs
Subaru should bring back the legacy wagon and return the Outback to its bubbly premium sibling. They spilled look exactly the same as they did in the 90s but with modern safety features and better gas mileage. Bonus points if you can get it with a tape deck.
That would be the best car for basically everyone.
SUVs typically have less cargo space than SWs
An electric SUV is the stupidest thing. They have shit range. There's an electric SW from Nio with 1000 km of range.
Audi Avant?
Opel Astra Sports Tourer Electric
Volkswagen ID7 Tourer?
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CanyonerNO
PLEASE put a stop to insane car sizes. I'm from the US and our cars, SUVs, and trucks have gotten so huge it would be humorous if not for the thousands of extra children it's killing each year.
In the words of the Australian health minister: is it how the US is doing it? Don't do that.
Those kind of cars are not really popular in Europe as the streets here are narrow and don't follow grid patterns. A lot of countries also already have regulations that limit what cars are road legal. That's why you will not see a Cybertruck on the road in Europe, they have too many sharp edges and no crumple zones which makes them not road legal.
What??
(This sounds like something someone who has never been to Europe would say.)
Europe is being absolutely flooded with SUVs and even pickups (supply/marketing pressure + ego imho, bcs such cars are more profitable for manufacturers even when they are lower quality). And yes, we have a couple of Cybertrucks too.
Also most the poshest SUVs sold in USA are European models.
The dumpsters from at least two EU countries:
Additionally, here are new car registrations in 2024 - most of the cars (50.7%, 7 million cars) were some sort of SUVs (so the front part of the car is higher than it needs to be):
Euro SUVs can not be compared to American SUVs.
You go buy a hunking monster of a German SUV, a BMW X7 or a Mercedes GLS right now, they're actually shorter than the LWB versions of the 7 series or S-Klasse, at around 5.1-5.2 meters for the SUVs and 5.3 for the flagship luxury sedans (Maybach versions and such are longer ofc)
The SHORT version of the GM full-size SUV (Escalade/Yukon/Tahoe) is about that size. The full size version (Escalade ESV/Yukon XL/Suburban) is almost half a meter longer than that, at over 5.7 meters. Full-size pickup trucks get over 6 meters in length and those are completely normal commuter vehicles too. The Cybertruck isn't even a very big truck in the US.
Japanese, Korean and American manufacturers all have models that they consider normal for North America, but won't sell in Europe - though for the Koreans, those aren't even THAT big - the Telluride is only a bit bigger than an X5.
That's not to say that I disagree on the fact that we need to limit car size growth. But you can NOT compare Europe to the US. You drive around in more rural areas in the US on a single holiday trip and suddenly things like the Jeep Grand Cherokee start looking like small cars. The super popular "C-SUV" in your graph is a smaller vehicle than an Audi A4. A normal family car that can fit 2 proper child seats in the back and a stroller in the trunk in your graph is anything between C and D segment car or SUV. The average taxi, the Mercedes E-Class, is E segment.
Really the most stupid part to me is when people buy these C-SUVs. They don't generally fit more people or luggage than C-Cars, and because of the extra weight and height, handling and ride quality is more compromised. They also cost more than equivalently sized cars. Just get a C-Car or D-Car in the form of a wagon. E-Car if you really need space. Most of my cars have been executive sized wagons (5 series Touring, E-Class T-Modell, A6 Avant are all cars I've owned) and they'll beat a similarly priced compact SUV in pretty much any metric I can think of. I currently have about 200 kilowatts of power after a remap, do over 1000 km on a tank of diesel in mixed driving scenarios (1500+ on all highway), can sit in comfort all day long or race you on a curvy road, and carry half my furniture when I fold down the rear seats.
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I live in Denmark and the Cybertruck is not road legal here. I though that was the case for most of Europe?
The cybertrucks on European roads have an individual permit, which has less requirements than a general permit for all cybertrucks.
AfaIk, they needed to attach something at the edges of the cybertruck to have at least 3 mm radius.
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Lmao, like those rubber balls you can put on furniture to stop kids braining themselves?
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Still the car sizes in Europe are smaller on average. But yes, as they get bigger all the time, its time to reverse that and make tighter regulation
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Would be nice if true!
Of course you are technically correct. There are more giantic cars in the US than in Europe.
Nonetheless the avarage European car gets bigger every year β that's the point of the original post β and they are already too big for our cities.
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I call on the EU to limit new cars, period. Public transport needs ti be massively improved and made cheaper everywhere. Buying cars should be limited to those who actually need them, like disabled people, vehicles for transporting goods and such.
Limiting sucks. If we try to get shit done by taking away, it'll never happen. No limiting.
But there seems to be an interesting phenomenon in between public transit and driving. Like if you have a popular destination with shitty public transit, it'll take a ton of time to get there by car due to congestion.
So make public transit go brrr, maybe slap some extra tax on vehicles, and see people abandon cars in favor of a working public transport by themselves, without any external limiting factors.
Just do what we do here, and have like, six parking spots at a beach, and ticket anyone who parks illegally. It encourages bike and bus use :)
Maybe I was just hallucinating and imagined adding extra hurdles to vehicle ownership. I think that's what scares most people away when it comes to freeing up public space.
I am all for walkable cities with proper bike infrastructure and railed transit. But I feel it is an important distinction that we try not to make things harder on the 'other end', and instead concentrate on new city infrastructure being created that focuses on being friendly to everything besides convenience motorists.
So like everyone can still get a car, just make it not really worth it, in a good way. There, I solved world hunger.
Our city is fairly dense, so unfortunately there's no room to build extra parking or even new roads. We have been forced to get creative, but the benefit is that a lot more people are using bikes and rail now that the city core has bike lanes that can get you just about anywhere. The latest development is that women and children are starting to bike in our city, which is a promising sign for safety (North American city).
Our city is still struggling to marry up mass transit with last mile transit such as bikes, ebikes and other PEVs. The buses and trains are starting to get bike racks that can accommodate modern bikes, but it's still difficult to find bike lockers or bike valet services downtown, and it's still too easy to get your bike nicked.
Year on year, the number of cars on the road keeps growing. There's simply not enough space to add new roads, so traffic is slowly growing to a complete halt. Limiting the number of cars is one of the only ways to keep cars viable. You could have licenses based on need, for sale and by lottery. If it becomes harder to get a car, more people will organise themselves to not need a car. And it would make the demand for car sharing explode.
When I see the rising popularity of those Ram or F150 monstrosities in small (sub) urban areas it makes me cry for humanity a bit
It makes me cry a lot. I live in an urban part of Germany and there used to be 0 Pickup trucks in my residential area but in the last few years a bunch of those popped up. There are no parking lots those things fit onto and I only ever the them pulling a small trailer, the loading bed is never used. And one of them has a Confederate Flag on it...
The Confederate Flag thing is just laughable. I will never understand why some Europeans are so hung up on American politics.
In Amsterdam there was one of those pickups parked partly on tram rails. Imagine being that much of a prick.
Thanks, that's the one I meant
This is Rotterdam, though ;p
It was mentioned on Lubach, I couldn't really remember the specifics so I figured it was probably Amsterdam but I can't really spot it on first sight. I don't believe it's Rotterdam, the tram doesn't even look like the ones in Amsterdam
This is anecdotal but there are several new Ram β giant monster trucks in my corner of rural France (as well Mustangs, Camaros, etc.). These are not work vehicles. They are kept spotlessly clean. The owners most likely drive a tractor in their day job. Also there are giant Fiat trucks, which I can understand even less. So many narrow streets around here. I suppose they are symbolic icons in the mind of the drivers.
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These sort of decisions, like with phasing out petrol products, could have been made on much shorter timelines.
Like, everyone would survive if starting tomorrow you couldn't buy an SUV or a pickup any more, or a car longer than 5m or whatever.
Industries are overall more expensive for everyone if you give them 10 year timelines to limit something that is killing people & destroying the environment (which is just 10 years of lobbying anyway). It also helps concentrate wealth even more on the count of public safety & wellbeing.
Countless industries have to adapt to sudden changes all the time. Only the truly powerful industries/megacorps don't have to bcs lobby magic.
And another issue: We are currently seeing politics reversing the planned "bans" (which are not really bans) on petrol engines. So if you're doing a phasing out of something, you have to ensure that no lobbying effort will be successful in the years until your ban starts. You have to ensure that no corrupt rightwing government, no "conservative" party "friendly" to companies and no Trump will gain power in the meantime.
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