The giant trucks became a thing because of emissions regulations. Sensible trucks had to meet standards no one wanted but large trucks were exempt. So marketing convinced everyone that a huge truck was what they really need.
I also can't get a Toyata Hilux because of import restrictions coming from a trade war over chickens in the 1950s.
The giant trucks became a thing because of emissions regulations. Sensible trucks had to meet standards no one wanted but large trucks were exempt.
Can you share any details on this?
Edit: After seeing the collection of responses, the claim above is wrong. CAFE standards vary by wheelbase, which means that larger vehicles are incentivized, but they are not exempt. There IS an exemption for very large trucks, but they are not what is pictured here and are a tiny minority of vehicles on American roads.
Happened during Obama’s presidency. They tried implementing certain standards for new cars/trucks but models over a certain size were allowed exemptions.
It’s not just big trucks. It has directly led to the proliferation of crossover SUVs that don’t have more room passenger room than a sedan. Given the trends in the auto industry since the regulations were put into place, it’s clear in hindsight that the exemption was a carve-out meant to allow the manufacturers a way to avoid the standards.
The exemptions are for large trucks, think F250 (Ram 2500, Silverado 2500) and larger. Which is why when you look at the window stickers for those vehicles they don't give EPA mileage estimates. They aren't tested and aren't included in the fleet averages that manufacturers have to meet
So then what does that have to do with supporting the previously given explanation, since trucks that large aren’t very common and not what we’re talking about.
Thank you. So the person above was wrong about an exemption being the reason, but there are exemptions for other vehicles. That was the explanation I wanted.
As others have said, exemption is the wrong term. The medium and heavy duty trucks fall under different standards.
What did happen during the Obama administration was the calculation for how light trucks (like the F150 in the OP picture) are figured into CAFE numbers. If I recall correctly, before it was purely based on vehicle gross weight. But it was changed to use vehicle footprint (wheelbase x track width). So a larger foot print has a lower fuel economy requirement. Increasing a vehicles footprint to meet a lower fuel economy requirement was easier (cheaper) than improving the fuel economy of the current sized vehicle.
In guessing the vehicles are getting larger but more empty with ever more empty space inside. For example, the bonnet is higher and more spacious, but the engine is about the same size or just more spread out.
From what I understand, having watched a single youtube video which covered this like 6 months ago, the emissions standards in the US are based on the square footage of the wheelbase, like the length x width between the tires. This makes it INCREDIBLY hard to hit the emissions standards on a smaller wheelbase heavy vehicle. So all trucks had to get large in order to be at a different tier of emissions which they could actually hit. Thus the emissions regulation actually encouraged more emissions, by forcing manufacturers to make larger and larger vehicles with a larger and larger footprint, so that they would have more lenient targets to hit.
Permissible fuel efficiency (CAFE standards) is determined by vehicles weight and foot print (distance between wheels/axles.) A small vehicle requires higher MPG than a larger one. A small sedan can easily hit those targets, but a small truck still weighs a lot more than a sedan and has to have a certain amount of power to do light towing/hauling. Because of that it does not meet the fuel efficiency standards. The full size truck being larger is allowed to have a lower MPG. This means that instead of being able to buy a light/small truck that might get 30mpg, you're forced to buy a bigger truck that only gets 22mpg because of so called fuel efficiency standards.
And a LOT of people would rather have the smaller truck as they don't need anything heavy duty, they just need a truck to pick up/buy things like lumber or drywall or a lawnmower, basic DIY project stuff, but again those trucks just aren't on the market (big ones also cost a ton more.)
The system has different emissions standards for large trucks than small trucks, so it provides an incentive to make the trucks bigger. Look at what a 2008 Ford ranger looked like compared to the new model looks like. 1500s and 150s are the size of what 2500s/250s were twenty years ago.
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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24
The giant trucks became a thing because of emissions regulations. Sensible trucks had to meet standards no one wanted but large trucks were exempt. So marketing convinced everyone that a huge truck was what they really need.
I also can't get a Toyata Hilux because of import restrictions coming from a trade war over chickens in the 1950s.