The US gov’t is finally doing something about giant pedestrian-killing SUVs
After a decade and a half rise in pedestrian deaths, the US government is finally starting to take some action to stop huge pedestrian-killing SUVs.
Cars have been getting safer and safer over time, but the same has not applied to pedestrian safety.
While theoretically many of the safety improvements on cars ought to help protect those outside the car (emergency braking, crumple zones, etc), statistics have shown this has not been the case. Currently, pedestrian deaths are at a 40-year high in the US.
There are multiple culprits here, including insufficient infrastructure for non-car road users (cyclists, pedestrians, etc.), and distracted driving due to the suffusion of technology into our lives.
But most of all, the culprit is gigantic vehicles. And vehicle sizes have ballooned for multiple reasons in recent years, both due to automaker profits and consumer preference (which are in turn led by automakers who preferentially advertise larger or more polluting vehicles), and a perception of safety despite the significant danger that huge vehicles bring to the road.
It’s gotten so bad that even Jim Farley, CEO of Ford – which sells the F150, the most popular large vehicle in the US (and one of the deadliest) – said that America needs to “get back in love with smaller vehicles.”
But one of the less-talked-about reasons that vehicles keep getting bigger is the matter of government regulations that create a perverse incentive to increase vehicle size, like the EPA’s so-called “footprint rule” and various other credits or incentives for large vehicles.
Thankfully, the US government seems to have noticed its part in creating this problem, and is finally signaling that its ready for a change.
NHTSA, EPA make moves to reduce vehicle size
The latest move in this respect comes from the NHTSA, which published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) this week which brings pedestrian deaths into focus.
The NHTSA is a government agency, part of the Department of Transportation, which among other things is responsible for automobile crash safety testing.
While most of its safety tests focus on the safety of car occupants, NHTSA wants to add a new test focused specifically on reducing the danger of pedestrian head-to-hood impact – both adults and children.
One problem with giant SUVs and pickups is that their high, blunt front ends tend to result in impacts with pedestrian torsos, rather than the legs. A torso hit will tend to send a pedestrian onto the ground, rather than onto the hood of the vehicle – and vehicle hoods tend to be softer than asphalt, and less likely to result in the pedestrian being run over by a vehicle.
This is why pedestrian safety regulations focus on the height of the bumper – something that has not been a significant part of US safety regulations before now. But this new NHTSA rule would seek to change that, and to harmonize US rules with “Global Technical Regulation No 9,” an international safety standard which would also have the benefit of making US cars more interoperable between territories. This rule harmonization process was part of Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Not only are huge vehicles dangerous for pedestrians, they also create more pollution. After all, a recent analysis showed that emissions could have dropped 30%, but SUVs ruined it for everyone.
Part of the reason for this is because the EPA gives some leeway to larger vehicles, allowing them to be slightly less efficient than smaller vehicles.
While that is still the case, EPA signaled it’s interested in changing that recently. In the most recent final emissions standards, EPA included one line that we here at Electrek noticed and were thrilled by: “EPA is finalizing the proposed approach to flatten the slope of each footprint standards curve and to narrow the numerical stringency difference between the car and truck curves.”
Essentially, this means that EPA is going to reduce the amount of “extra credit” they give to SUVs, which means that automakers won’t have as much incentive to go bigger. While it’s a minor change and will take a while to settle and affect vehicle designs, it at least shows that the EPA acknowledges its part in the mistake, and that it intends to improve the situation.
Electrek’s Take
The situation in the US is really desperate. In a time of so much focus on car safety, the fact that pedestrian deaths have risen so sharply is unacceptable.
But it’s not just about pedestrian deaths, but the absolute unavailability of reasonable vehicles in this country.
Virtually everything available today is a huge SUV. And this applies to EVs as well – while in the early days of EVs there were a lot of small hatchbacks available, now almost everything is an SUV. Some of them are smaller-sized (though the most reasonably-sized one was stopped by ill-considered tariffs), and there are a few sedans like the Ioniq 6 and Model 3. But it feels like almost all the new EVs coming out this year are giant three–row SUVs (and, uh, whatever this is).
Even the electric trucks that are coming out are far too big – meanwhile, the Ford Maverick, a small(-er…-ish) truck is flying off the shelves. Imagine how well an EV Maverick could do.
But rule changes like this give us some hope. Not only has the government finally realized the gravity of the huge-car situation, but it certainly feels like there’s some societal pushback against enormous cars brewing.
For example, when Rivian, a company not known for its large-car shyness, revealed its much-anticipated R2, it followed with the surprise R3, a likely Golf-ish-sized hatchback… and promptly received much more excitement, by our measure, for the hot hatch than for the mid-size SUV.
It just feels like it’s getting to be that time again, when we’ve finally reached the point of too much, and we might rebound and see the pendulum swing back towards some normal-sized vehicles again.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but we sure hope so.
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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