Big cars, big problems

Ever-higher: the rise of bonnet height, and the case to cap it

Transport & Environment, June 2025

Vehicle bonnet height is closely linked with the risk of death and serious injury in the event of a crash. Average bonnet heights across Europe are growing year-on-year. In the UK, average bonnet heights have increased from 76.9 cm in 2010 to 83.8 cm in 2024. Nearly half of cars sold in 2024 had bonnets at least 85 cm in height. 

Despite the clear danger, no regulation currently exists in UK or EU law to limit bonnet height for new cars. This report makes the case for change. 

Read the full study here. 

Are European countries steering drivers to go electric or sticking to polluting SUVs?

Transport & Environment, May 2025

Four times more large (D and E segment) polluting SUVs are sold to private buyers in the UK than in France, and low taxes help explain why. Vehicle Excise Duty on new SUVs is as much as 20 times higher in some EU countries than in the UK, making the UK a tax haven for polluting, dangerous SUVs. 

Read the full briefing here.

Do sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and light truck vehicles (LTVs) cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars in the case of a crash? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Goodman et al., April 2025

An analysis of 24 studies from the US and EU concludes that SUVs raise the risk of pedestrian or cyclist fatality by 44% if struck by an SUV, rising to 82% for children. 

Read the full study here.

An investigation into the relationship between car weight and fatal collision rates in the UK

Carlson, Dadashzadeh, Ekmekci, March 2025

People driving heavier cars are disproportionately involved in more fatal collisions, and the average car weight is increasing in the UK. Preliminary findings from a study of documented collisions in the UK from 2019-2023 find that as car weight increases, the number of fatal collisions per million cars rises, peaking at 26.2 for the heaviest cars (2001-2500kg). This trend is consistent for Car-Car and Car-Pedestrian collisions.

Read the full paper here.

YouGov public polling

Polling of 2,133 UK adults, of whom 1,404 were passenger car owners, conducted in January 2025, found that public attitudes towards larger vehicles lean towards the negative. For instance

• a majority of UK car owners (59%) agree that SUVs are not necessary in towns and cities, compared to just 20% that disagree.

• almost three times as many UK car owners (60%) agree that SUVs “are bought more as status symbols than for practical use” compared to those that disagree (21%).

• four times as many UK car owners agree (71%) that more SUVs “will make parking more difficult” compared to those that disagree (15%). 

Read more here. 

SUV toolkit for cities: options for defining and addressing ‘oversized vehicles’

Transport for Quality of Life, February 2025.

Many cities are implementing parking policies which charge the drivers of larger cars more, in order to discourage the use of these cars in our urban spaces. This report examines the advantages and disadvantages of using different metrics (i.e. weight, height, length, width) to define ‘oversized vehicles’ when designing such a parking charge tariff. 

Download the full toolkit here.

Impact of vehicle characteristics on the severity of injuries to car occupants and the opposing party

Nuyttens and Messaoud, September 2025.

Published in 2023 this study analyses Belgian road crash statistics to calculate the effect on road deaths and serious injuries of multiple vehicle characteristics, including vehicle weight and bonnet height. A 10 cm increase in bonnet height is found to increase the risk of fatal injuries for vulnerable road users by 27%. 

An increase in vehicle weight of 300 kg is found to reduce fatality risk for occupants by almost half, but raises that risk by 77% for occupants of another car (in the event of a car-car collision), and 28% for vulnerable road users.

Read the full study here.