Citroen's CEO thinks SUVs will soon be a thing of the past
In a recent interview, Citroen's CEO, Vincent Cobee, said that the days of SUVs are numbered. Interestingly enough, Peugeot's CEO predicts a similar faith for SUVs.
It's hard to argue with Vincent Cobee's reasoning for his prediction - aerodynamics are key for BEVs in general and SUVs have high aerodynamic resistance. Citroen's boss points that moste modern EV SUVs are rather slightly taller sedans than full-fledged SUVs.
He claims that a sedan the same aerodynamics would give you up to 80 km extra autonomy when compared to a similarly sized SUV. So he predicts those "tall sedans" will stay as the EVs take over, but the traditional SUVs won't make sense in a fully electric market.
The traditional SUVs are heavier to begin with and they require bigger batteries due to extra drag, which further amplifies the weight and cost difference. And if we are to pursue efficiency with the transition to EVs it just doesn't make sense to insist on needlessly tall, aerodynamically inefficient form facts.
Still, the traditional SUV class has a lot of die-hard fans, so we doubt it will entirely disappear. It will lose market share, but there will always be a niche for it.
Reader comments
- Algis
Roads are bad and continue to deteriorate in my area. Climate conditions worsening, with extremal amount of water making streets look as rivers, and lot of high snow so only with SUV you can still hope to reach the destination. To make things worse, ...
- 09 Aug 2023
- 0xU
Citroën is most likely thinking the EU would push for some SUV regulation, which would be fine in my eyes, but that would hardly be a reality for quite a some time. SUVs are immensely popular, even if their ICE version consumes a lot of fuel and EV...
- 14 Jan 2023
- nt{
Trust me they don't make sense as gas cars either 😂 You've gotta be one special kind of fool to buy an SUV.
- 14 Jan 2023
- j5{