Who would have thought we’d be reflecting on the days of two-tonne SUVs as some kind of high water mark in lightweight design?
My tongue is of course firmly in my cheek – but perhaps not wedged as high as my eyebrows were when I read that the upcoming battery-powered Mercedes EQS SUV tips the scales at just over 2.8 tonnes. With large electric SUVs coming from every premium and luxury manufacturer, this may soon become the norm rather than the exception, but should we accept it?
I’ve long apologised for the electric revolution being driven in large part by contradictory heavyweight SUVs, following the industry line that the high bodystyle was the perfect way to disguise the added height of battery packs, and reasoning that if you want to drive adoption, the best way to do it is by launching new cars in the most popular segments.
However, in the face of such bulk, serious questions should be asked. Weight compromises efficiency and dynamics, and the safety of other road users, and it raises questions around road damage and tyre wear (and their knock-on impacts on human health) and more. Each of these individually warrants serious scrutiny, but combined they make me wonder if their makers have actually considered the environmental imperative to consume less that is driving the transition.
Sure, we can marvel at the technical prowess that allows such a large, heavy car to achieve official best-case efficiency of 3mpkWh while offering a claimed range of more than 400 miles. Better that than a fuel-guzzling V8, perhaps.
It’s also true that we shouldn’t fixate on the EQS SUV that triggered these thoughts. There are other electric cars on sale today, almost all of which are large SUVs, that are even less efficient – although notably plenty that are more so.
But while it seems logical that allowing the super-rich to greenwash their travel at the expense of others should no longer be acceptable, I’m not sure the car makers have grasped that point. Where once we would have brushed off such excess by accepting that the owner has every right to choose to spend their money how they see fit, now, surely, we have a wider collective, societal concern for the repercussions for the planet to consider, don’t we?
The answer requires an uncomfortable reinvention, rather than a gentle shift. Today, it still feels like car makers are set on making electric versions of what they have spent the past 100 years honing. But the time is surely ripe for a more thorough examination of what premium and luxury stand for.
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I can't wait for the Alpine A110 EV, but I hope we don't want to relegate largesse, otherwise known as philanthropical generosity, to a fringe interest.