London cabbies call for end to Wimbledon SUVs

The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) has written to the Wimbledon tennis organising committee, the AELTC, questioning the use of large Range Rover SUVs as official vehicle during the tournament, and offering use of black cabs as a safer and more sustainable alternative.

Range Rover has sponsored the Wimbledon Chamionships since 2015 and this year provides a fleet of 179 SUVs to transport players and their teams between accommodation and the courts. The LTDA letter calls the sponsorship “odd”, noting that London mayor Sadiq Khan has challenged the growing presence of SUVs on the capital’s roads, with the recent Vision Zero Action Plan 2 stating bluntly that “without action to address oversized and heavier vehicles, more people will be seriously injured or killed.”

In parallel, members of the SUV Alliance, alongside allies, wrote to the AELTC to similarly criticise the partnership with Range Rover. This is the third year in a row that The SUV Alliance has coordinated such a letter, and the AELTC shows little sign of shifting its position.

Wimbledon isn’t Range Rover’s only foray into sponsorship. In May, Range Rover enjoyed pride of place at the Chelsea Flower Show, and in broadcast coverage, as headline sponsor.

Sponsorship is a form of advertising. The endorsement of large SUVs through partnerships like that between Range Rover and the AELTC or Range Rover and the Chelsea Flower Show drives an aspirational culture for ever larger vehicles, at the expense of public space, air quality and safety for others. As recent research has suggested, advertising plays a huge role in shaping public perceptions of SUVs, providing licence for more and more people to buy one.

In recent years, sponsorship of cultural and sporting events by fossil fuel companies has been repeatedly the subject of campaigns aiming to end the social licence of major polluters. Isn’t it time we did the same with sponsorship by producers of oversized SUVs?