SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) are BAD
Things change, and as a student (of English and of life) you want to be as mindful as possible about the changes happening around you. Have you noticed changes to what is being driven on the roads in Myanmar?
More and more people, especially it seems in urban areas, are buying and driving SUVs or sports utility vehicles. An SUV is a vehicle that combines elements of a passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles (like a jeep). They are generally bigger and heavier than a passenger car or light truck and they are really bad for the environment.
Read the article below and identify the statements as True, False or Not Given
The sale of SUVs increased dramatically from 2010 to 2018.
The researchers had predicted that SUVs would become a major contributor to global carbon emissions.
The negative impact of SUVs on CO2 emissions is much greater than the positive impact due to enviromental measures, such as electric cars.
Recent changes in the car market have been reflected in the sales of SUVs.
The increased sales of SUVs is an universal trend.
In wet and stormy conditions, SUVs are safer than passenger cars.
The name 'Chelsea Tractors' refers to Chelsea, a wealthy district in New York.
The marketing of SUVs as being safer for drivers is contradicted by fatality statistics.
According to a report by the International Energy Agency that was released in November 2019, SUVs are the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2018.
In that period, SUVs doubled their global market share from 17% to 39% and their annual emissions rose to more than 700 megatonnes of CO2, more than the yearly total emissions of the UK and the Netherlands combined. No energy sector except power drove a larger increase in carbon emissions, putting SUVs ahead of heavy industry (including iron, steel, cement and aluminium), aviation and shipping.
This is a significant finding, that surprised even the study's author. In 2010, one in five vehicles sold was an SUV; today it’s two in five. “As a result, there are now over 200 million SUVs around the world, up from about 35 million in 2010,” the agency reports. The recent dramatic shift towards heavier SUVs has offset both efficiency improvements in smaller cars and carbon savings from electric vehicles. As the global fleet of SUVs has grown, emissions from the vehicles have increased more than fourfold in eight years. If SUV drivers were a nation, they would rank seventh in the world for carbon emissions.
The global car market has been stalling in recent years, but the SUV segment has so far bucked this trend, however, with a record 35 million vehicles sold in 2018. SUVs have steadily increased their share across major markets all around the world, from Europe and the US to China and India.
What’s the attraction of SUVs? Consumers who buy them hand manufacturers a higher profit margin than for smaller vehicles. The weight and boxy shape of SUVs makes them less fuel-efficient, so they cost more to operate and are less nimble than passenger cars. Some people feel safer in a vehicle where they sit high above the road, but the raised center of gravity makes SUVs more prone to rollovers than cars. Some people want an SUV because they believe that an all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive option will make them safer in bad weather. In reality, many drivers do not need this expensive and fuel-economy-lowering feature, and would be better off with front-wheel-drive and good tires.
People often buy vehicles for reasons that have very little to do with functionality. SUVs started to become popular in the 1980s, and often earned nicknames such as “Chelsea tractor” as a result of the wealthy city suburbs they became associated with. Since then, sales have continued to rise, and the vehicles are often marketed as a status symbol. However, opposition to SUVs in cities is also rising. Recent protests in Berlin demanded a ban on the vehicles after a driver hit and killed four pedestrians, while activists at a Frankfurt motor show protested against the vehicles’ impact on the climate. SUVs are significantly more likely to kill pedestrians in crashes, and although they are often marketed as safer, those driving them are 11% more likely to die in a crash than people in normal cars.
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