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An SUV built by the Vietnamese company Vinfast at the Paris Motor Show in 2018. REUTERS / Joseph White

They are now ubiquitous in the urban landscape: the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), these cars that look like a 4x4 without having all the capabilities ... The problem: these vehicles are very polluting. According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the development of SUVs could negate the efforts of the automotive sector to reduce its CO2 emissions.

More than 200 million SUVs circulate around the world today compared to 35 million in 2010. Since these vehicles are big, heavy and not really aerodynamic, they emit a lot of CO2 , a quarter more than the cars of average size. As a result, these four-wheel-drive cars were the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the world between 2010 and 2018, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Sales accelerate

And this evolution - very bad for the climate - is not ready to stop. SUVs are the stars of the automotive industry, far more than electric cars, and sales are accelerating: in 2010, 18% of cars sold worldwide were SUVs, in 2018 their share reached 40%.

If these vehicles emit so much CO2 it is because they consume a lot of fuel. Here too, they erase the savings made by electric cars and smaller cars more efficient .

Electric SUVs not on the agenda

As for potential electric SUVs, they do not represent - for the moment - a credible option, because it is a technology difficult to adapt to these very imposing cars.

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