Get your tanks off our lawn - how cars are getting heavier

The BBC this week trumpeted news that not a single occupant of the Volvo XC90 SUV has been killed since 2012. Other than the article reading like a puff piece for the Swedish car maker, it overlooks entirely the question of how many many other road users have perished in crashes involving the two-ton vehicle.

If car driver and occupants is the only metric by which we judge the danger posed by motorised vehicles, SUVs like the XC90 can end up as destructive to vulnerable road users as tanks.

The danger that motorised vehicles pose to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users is beginning to form part of safety ratings undertaken by NCAP , but they should be given far more weighting - ask anyone on the front line. The comment below was posted on this website earlier this week in response to an article of ours about road danger.

Cars are piling on the pounds

The Fiat 500 was arguably the world's first city car. In its earliest incarnation, the tiny vehicle weighed 500 kg and managed around 50 mpg. Its 2016 descendent is considered no less desirable by today's city folk. However, it weighs two-and-a-half times more while struggling to match its predecessor's fuel figures.

One of the reasons today's cars are so heavy is that they have evolved features to better protect their occupants.

Nobody would argue that today's cars are not more comfortable, reliable and safer for passengers than their 1950s counterparts, but as they have become heavier as they’ve grown in size, they pose an increased risk to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers of lighter cars in the event of a collision.

Very light cars like the electric G-Wizz are classed as quadricycles – four-wheeled vehicles with an unladen mass not more than 400 kg. They are designed to operate in urban areas at low speeds. The fact quadricycles are lighter than conventional cars makes them less of a risk to pedestrians and less damaging to the road surface. And while most urban drivers have little need for powerful engines (Greater Manchester has an average traffic speed of 12.1 mph, Leicester 13.6 mph, London 14.6 mph according to 2008 figures), light cars don't have to compromise on performance.

The Edison 2 Very Light Car is a four-seater that delivers 120 mpg. The futuristic-looking vehicle uses a rear-mounted, single-cylinder motorcycle engine running on a blend of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol to produce 40 horsepower. It is capable of carrying four people a distance of 200 miles on one load of fuel. It's no slouch either; it can accelerate to 60 mph in 12 seconds and go on to a top speed of 100 mph.

It may be that today's heavy cars are a swan song before technology takes drivers out of the equation. Once motorists no longer need protecting from themselves, cars can rediscover the lightness and litheness of their youth.

The ethical choice

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