The problem with road-hogging ‘wankpanzers’: Even when electric, they are a hazard

More than half of the electric vehicles (EVs) on sale in Australia are road-hogging SUVs, a trend that is irritating experts who say it strikes at EVs’ green credentials and encourages ‘wankpanzers’.

The trend towards bigger, heavier vehicles is bad news for everybody outside of the vehicle, because of safety issues, and the trend towards “mobesity” is raising concerns at a global level, says the head of Australia’s EV user lobby group.

“Carmakers have specifically marketed SUVs on the grounds of safety and visibility (for the occupants) while downplaying their small and compact vehicle options,” Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA) president Chris Jones told The Driven.

“While an oversized EV carries additional resources, energy and emissions the day it rolls off the production line, its emissions will typically break even with ICE [internal combustion] within three to four years, and most of the input resources are recyclable. 

“But that’s no excuse to keep marketing wankpanzers [unusually large vehicles] to a population who mostly doesn’t need them.”

However, Electric Vehicle Council interim CEO Samantha Johnson cautions not to compare big gas-guzzler trucks with EV equivalents.

“In Australian the trend is certainly towards towards a larger vehicle,” she told The Driven.

“Bringing more electric vehicles into the 4×4 space is a very positive step towards lowering emissions because you’re going to be moving those vehicles to EVs.

“Electrification is going to lower emissions, and the materials used in these cars is getting more renewable over time and they will get lighter as the battery tech evolves over time.”

Big EVs dominate Australian market

Watching massive SUVs and passenger trucks lose their wing mirrors in Australia’s rabbit warren-like inner city streets is an amusing spectator sport now, and it’s one that EV owners will continue.

Some 56 per cent of battery electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid vehicles sold between January and February were small, medium and large SUVs, according to data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) published on the Australia Automobile Association website. 

Breaking the numbers down further shows that 56 per cent of BEVs sold in that period were SUVs.  SUVs made up 97 per cent of PHEVs sold and for hybrids it was 53 per cent.

The reason why SUVs dominate is because they are what is available in Australia’s EV-starved market. 

Small, medium and large SUVs make up 63 per cent of the market for BEVs, PHEVs and hybrids. For BEVs alone, in the first quarter they made up 52 per cent of what was available for Australians to buy.

‘Mobesity’ damns green credentials

The shift from ever-larger ICE vehicles to even bigger EVs is a problem that risks undermining the green credentials of the new technology, wrote University of Oxford professor Christian Brand in a Nature Energy piece in June. 

“There is an alarming shift towards the production and use of larger, heavier vehicles – ‘mobesity’ – which pose unique challenges to reducing emissions,” he wrote. 

“The increased demand for bigger batteries and more powerful motors in turn demand more lithium, cobalt, and other critical raw materials.”

Brand says EV manufacturers are releasing fewer small cars while marketing bigger ones in order to drive larger profits, and it’s effectively changing consumer preferences. 

It’s a fact the International Energy Agency (IEA) noted in its 2024 Global EV Outlook report, finding that globally two-thirds of EVs are large vehicles and SUVs. 

“The share of small and medium electric car models is decreasing among available electric models: in 2023, two-thirds of the battery electric models on the market were SUVs, pick-up trucks or large cars,” the report said. 

Policy incentives for large vehicles, larger margins on larger vehicles in an era when carmakers still aren’t making a profit on EVs, demand for longer range cars in order to kick range anxiety, and more marketing for SUVs are driving the ongoing shift towards bigger EVs, the report says. 

Bizarre policy settings lead to monster trucks

Australia’s policy settings encourage people to buy large cars, with fringe benefit tax concessions on vehicles over 1 tonne and luxury car tax exemptions making large cars a no-brainer in some cases.  

“In Australia we have bizarre policy settings that encourage people to buy much larger vehicles than they need in order to avail themselves of tax benefits,” Australian Institute executive director Richard Dennis told The Driven.

“If someone really needs to carry a tonne of something, then they should buy a vehicle that can carry a tonne of something. But if you are required to move around a city with a laptop… Whether that vehicle is electric or petrol or diesel, our tax system should not be incentivising people to buy that sized vehicle.” 

Dennis says these tax incentives encourage people to consume more resources, use more energy, and do more damage to roads than is necessary.

A solution would be to create a road user charge based on a universal, mass-by-distance fee as a way of covering road maintenance costs, says AEVA’s Jones.

“By multiplying the tare weight of any vehicle regardless of fuel source by the distance travelled, it better reflects the externalised cost to society, and creates a motivation to own and operate smaller, lighter vehicles,” he says.

Elsewhere, councils are taking matters into their own hands, amid calls by the likes of Dennis to clamp down on the size of vehicles on Australian streets.  

In March, the Greens-dominated Yarra City Council in Melbourne voted to charge SUVs and giant utes higher parking fees, copying a similar move in Paris a month earlier.

Although the federal government is unlikely to want to embark on another bruising car-based policy fight, a tax based on weight, size or power would incentivise smaller EVs as fleets switch from ICE to electric, Brand says.

But one area Australia could compete in, given the federal government’s roll out of the National Battery Strategy, is supporting advancements in battery technology that increase energy density while reducing materials use.

Rachel Williamson

Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.