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Ed Miliband has been accused by MPs of subsidising dangerous and polluting “supersized status symbols” as his department hands grants to people who buy electric SUVs.
The Labour government is giving discounts of up to £3,750 on new electric cars, but Guardian analysis reveals 12 of the 37 eligible models are SUVs.
Numbers of these giant cars have increased tenfold on the streets of England’s cities in the past two decades, now comprising 30% of urban vehicles. Larger cars are more likely to cause deaths in crashes than smaller ones, as they weigh more and have tall front ends that can trap victims beneath them. Analysis has found drivers in the tallest cars could not see children as old as nine when they were directly in front of the vehicle.
SUVs were defined in the analysis as cars at least 155cm tall and with a ground clearance of 16cm or more. The vehicles, including electric versions, produce more toxic particles from tyres due to their heavier weight, and cause more potholes.
The Labour MP Clive Lewis said: “It’s absurd that public money is being used to subsidise SUV-sized electric cars. They may be cleaner than petrol, but they’re still oversized, wasteful and dangerous. Heavier SUVs mean more potholes, more tyre pollution, and more energy consumption, hardly a green transition. Cities like Paris are moving to penalise SUVs with higher parking charges. Here in Britain, we’re doing the opposite: handing them subsidies.”
Lewis added that the issue was indicative of a wider inconsistency in Labour’s climate policy: “One day it’s warm homes investment, the next it’s Heathrow expansion; talk of climate leadership, while bankrolling more roads and bigger cars. If Labour is serious about climate action and public health, it should back smaller, lighter EVs and invest in universal, public transport – not pour taxpayers’ cash into supersized status symbols.”
Last year, Parisians voted to triple parking costs for SUVs in order to tackle air pollution and climate breakdown by targeting generally richer drivers in heavy, large and polluting cars. Reports suggest this is already beginning to have an impact in Paris. Le Parisien said the new parking rate for large vehicles in Paris had reduced the number of SUVs using surface parking by two-thirds.
The Green MP Siân Berry said:“Electric or not, SUVs make our streets more hostile and dangerous. These beasts of vehicles are leaving a trail of costly potholes in their wake and their gargantuan tires are clogging our air with particle pollution. The government should be moving to rid our cities of these unnecessary road risks, not enable them, and invest instead in far greener public transport, walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure.”
Some of Labour’s ministers have spoken in the past against SUVs. Before taking her post as environment minister, Mary Creagh, the MP for Coventry East, said: “No one needs a 2‑tonne machine to do the weekly shop but Britain’s streets are being ruined by heavy, dirty, dangerous SUVs. They are intimidating to pedestrians and up to twice as likely to kill people on foot in a collision.”
Climate campaigners have said the government should bring in weight-related taxes for vehicles to encourage smaller models on UK roads.
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Paul Morozzo, a senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “Electric SUVs are an improvement on petrol and diesel SUVs, but big cars of any type are a wasteful, damaging and unnecessary use of energy and resources, so subsidising them is not a good use of public money. We’d urge the government to bring in weight-related taxes to encourage a focus on smaller, more efficient vehicles.”
A government spokesperson said: “The £650m electric car grant is targeted at the most affordable electric vehicles with the strongest environmental credentials, helping families make the switch to cleaner cars. We are committed to decarbonising transport and are backing that ambition with over £4bn of investment to support both industry and households in moving to electric.”
