• Saff@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    How is this news? Yes, you need more energy to move a larger heavier object…Granted, the older engines might not be the most efficient but they weren’t that bad that you can compensate a weight increase of this magnitude!

    • silence7OPM
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      8 months ago

      Individually, sure, but there are a lot more SUVs. Enough that they account for more total emissions.

    • silence7OPM
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, old pickups were gas guzzlers. But pickups as ordinary commuter cars are incredibly rare in the UK.

      It’s a major problem that they’re mostly sold for that purpose in the US.

      • Nougat@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        “Light trucks” (in the US, at least) don’t have to meet the same fuel economy standards as passenger automobiles, the latter of which includes SUVs. So you build a massive luxury crew cab with a tiny, essentially useless bed, and you can emit more pollution than if it had a permanent “cover” and connected the passenger cabin with the cargo area.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Old pickup trucks?

        My first pickup - 1985 Nissan pickup (manual) averaged 25mpg.

        My current 2022 Chevy 1500 company owned work truck gets 19mpg.

        Of course the old Nissan weighed 2500 lbs. My Chevy work truck weighs in at 4400lbs.

        So fuel efficiency per weight has increased, but the newer trucks larger size still sucks gas.

        I still prefer the smaller trucks, so much easier to drive.

    • silence7OPM
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      8 months ago

      That it is massive means it needs to use more energy to accelerate. Choosing big vehicles where smaller ones will do is a real problem

      • Miclux@lemmings.world
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        8 months ago

        Also wrong. A big car doesn’t have to be heavy. Especially in comparison with old cars. It’s all about how you drive a car not what car. That “study” is biased as fuck.

        • silence7OPM
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          8 months ago

          “doesn’t have to be” but in practice they in fact are. I wouldn’t call this a bias problem; it’s that people are making and selling and buying huge and inefficient vehicles.