SUV growth weighs on emissions, batteries: International energy agency

Ever bigger cars pose a growing problem for the environment because they produce more greenhouse gas emissions and need larger batteries than their smaller cousins, according to the International Energy Agency.

The Paris-based body suggested Monday that it’s time for the car industry to downsize its vehicles, citing data that showed the world’s 330 million sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, pumped out almost 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2022.

That’s more than the annual emissions of an industrial nation like Germany.

The shift towards heavier and less fuel-efficient conventional vehicles increases growth in both oil demand and CO2 emissions,” the agency said, noting that SUVs consume about a fifth more gasoline than an average medium-sized car.