A few decades ago, it was unthinkable that SUVs would be the car of choice for a large chunk of motorists, whether you live in a rural area or central London.
Yet SUV sales exceeded one million in 2023, with registrations of the bulky vehicles increasing by around a fifth between 2022 and 2023 to the point where one in three motors are now sports utility vehicles.
And the numbers keep rising, despite backlash against them heating up – seemingly no amount of ‘Land Rover Tax’, high insurance costs, or emission charges will put buyers off.
So how did they become the ultimate status symbol and the car body shape everyone wants?
We take a look at the remarkable rise of the SUV.
SUV sales exceeded one million in 2023, with registrations of the bulky vehicles increasing by around a fifth between 2022 and 2023 – how did this happen and will the trend continue?
The origin of SUVs – when did they start becoming so popular?
For most people the SUVs of today find their origin in the off-roaders and 4×4 military vehicles of the Second World War.
The US Army Jeeps – of which there was a surplus when the war concluded – inspired post-war British Land Rovers and Japanese Toyota Land Cruisers.
These 4×4 were a more refined take on hardcore military vehicles but still very rugged.
Jeep actually coined the term ‘Sports Utility Vehicle’ (SUV) – which today means anything from a crossover to the new Range Rover Electric – in the brochure for its 1974 Cherokee.
This car became the first mainstream off-road vehicle in the US.
Jeep coined the term ‘Sports Utility Vehicle’ (SUV) in the brochure for its 1974 Cherokee, which became the first mainstream off-road vehicle in the US
Across the pond Land Rover and Range Rovers had gained a large (albeit it still rural) customer base in the 80s and 90s.
But while Land Rover remained ‘utility’, Range Rover moved off-roaders into ‘luxury’ in the late 70s and 80s.
1974 What Car wrote: ‘One feels that it has almost come to the stage now where no country house worth its salt is without one.’ And in 1975 Motor said: ‘It is the only vehicle that is equally at home in Park Lane, the Sahara, the Darien Gap, a cart track or a ploughed field.’
Range Rover’s additional comfort and practicality touches – power steering, automatic transmission, leather and wood interiors and four doors in 1981 – took them into a different Sloaney league.
King George VI was gifted the ceremonial 100th Land Rover in 1948 while Queen Elizabeth II received her first Land Rover in 1952. Land Rovers were often used for royal tours
The late Queen and Prince Philip were frequently photographed driving themselves around in their Land Rovers and Range Rovers
If anything cemented the SUV’s new status it was Range Rover’s limited edition ‘In Vogue’ model that the British brand released in collaboration with the world’s most famous fashion magazine in 1981.
That or the long-running association Land Rover and Range Rover had with Royal Family; King George VI was gifted the ceremonial 100th Land Rover in 1948 while Queen Elizabeth II received her first Land Rover in 1952. The Royal Family were lent a pre-production Range Rover in 1970.
Then in 1994 even Land Rover was given the luxe treatment by Richard Curtis in Four Weddings and a Funeral: A Land Rover Series IIa, fully loaded-up with upper class wedding goers, showed that high ground clearance cars were just as capable of cruising down Chelsea Embankment as they were stalking the fells of rural Scotland.
It was another twelve years before Nissan then released the Qashqai – the unlikely pioneer of the crossover segment of today.
SUVs offer a large cabin with lots of space for the family, a big boot, towing capacity and higher ground clearance which gives you a better view over the road – and because of this their popularity jumped almost tenfold in the 2010s.
The rise in SUV registrations
In 2008 SUVs accounted for just 161,000 cars sold annually, or 11.6 per cent market share.
By 2018 nearly a third of all cars on UK roads were SUVs. By 2021, 50 per cent of all new car registration were SUV, and just last year that was up to 60 per cent, with SUV sales exceeding one million.
In 2023 six out of ten of the bestselling models were SUVs or SUV crossovers: The Ford Puma – the UK’s best-selling car – is a sporty crossover SUV, as is the Nissan Juke and Vauxhall Mokka, while the Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, and Nissan Qashqai (still going and just as popular) are all larger SUVs.
The Tesla Model Y proves buyers are even flocking to electric SUVs. The Y is the first electric car to become the best-selling new car in the world.
If these trends continues, in 2027, 75 per cent of new car registrations will be made up of SUVs, Transport & Environment predicts.
In 2013, SUVs represented just over one in ten (11%) of all new cars. Fast forward a decade and they now account for almost three in ten (28.6%). In terms of passenger vehicle type, only city cars/superminis sell in greater numbers
While most of these best-sellers are far removed from the utility origins of the first Jeeps and Land Rovers, and don’t even have any off-road capability let alone four-wheel drive, that’s not putting of buyers – in fact it’s the opposite.
A light nod to the origins of SUVs – the larger size and chunky, outdoorsy looks – are more than enough for drivers who previously would have opted for an estate car.
And for some customers with very deep pockets, SUVs are just the IT car to have these days. Along with the new Range Rover, the G-Wagon is the ultimate status symbol for buyers with hundreds of thousands to spare.
A 2024 Mercedes G-Class costs from almost £137,000 – Mercedes also recently unveiled a £540,000 1,048bhp AMG G63 in tribute to Lewis Hamilton – and can be spotted on affluent roads, from Kensington to Cheshire.
The vintage G-Wagons of the 80s are having a retro comeback too.
The opulence of these tech-laden cars is a certainly a far cry from the sparseness of the original 20th century SUV – they might have all-wheel drive but the closest they’re likely to get to ‘off-roading’ is crossing a slightly wet Hyde Park.
Is SUV popularity a bad thing? Cars are getting ‘too big’
Too big for our roads? The average width of an on-street parking bay in cities in the UK is 180cm but SUVs are 200cm on average – too big for the average parking place
Transport & Environment has said that SUVs are ‘raising alarm bells’ because UK roads are being ‘squeezed for space’, citing ‘safety concerns’ and ‘air pollution from SUV tyres’.
In January This is Money reported new cars have got 1cm bigger every two years, due mainly to the popularity of large SUVs.
This has meant that many cars are too big to park on the street: T&E found that more than half of motors in showrooms today are wider than a standard 180cm on-street parking bay.
The average new car has swollen to 180.3cm – or 200cm with its wing mirrors out – but T&E has dubbed cars 200cm wide on average, or 220cm with wing mirrors, ‘mega SUVs’ because of their vast swell.
The increase in ‘Mega SUV’ size is making parking large luxury SUVs impossible – and can result in fines if the vehicle is outside the designated white lines.
Transport & Environment says the wider cars are leaving less room for other road users
The rise in SUVs has also meant that cars in the UK are getting heavier on average.
Over the last seven years, Autocar has discovered the average weight of new models has risen by nearly 400kg – the equivalent to adding the bulk of a grand piano.
Between 2016 to 2023 – the seven years representing the typical lifecycle a new car is on sale- the mean average kerbweight has risen from 1,553kg to 1,947kg.
While the idea that heavier cars are responsible for our poor roads has been rebuffed, there are increasing anti-SUV proposals coming in as many people turn against these large family cars.
The price of an SUV: ‘Land Rover’ parking tax and high VED rates
1st-year tax: 8.7% of RRP
The range-topping Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, which costs from £63,125, is just one SUV that sits in the highest VED banding from 2025
Only this month This is Money reported how it could become the norm for larger cars like SUVs to pay more to park in major cities in the UK.
Cardiff and Bristol councils are looking into introducing new parking strategies that would charge owners of SUVs more to park.
Cardiff would require drivers to pay more for a residential parking permit if they own an SUV, while Bristol would charge on-street, off-street and residential parking ‘based on ‘weight, emissions and size-based pricing’.
Already many London Boroughs, as well as cities like Bath, have emissions-based parking that means drivers of higher polluting cars (many of which are SUVs) have to pay more to park.
Some cities might even vote to implement a similar ‘Land Rover Tax’ as Paris, which charges triple the parking fee for SUV-style cars.
Cars weighing 1.6 tonnes or more have to pay an eye-watering €18 (£15) an hour for parking in Paris city centre – three times the current €6 price.
Fully electric cars only over two tonnes are affected, while people living or working in Paris, taxi drivers, tradespeople, health workers and people with disabilities are exempt.
Cars weighing 1.6 tonnes or more have to pay an eye-watering €18 (£15) an hour for parking in Paris city centre – three times the current €6 price
SUVs can also be far more expensive to tax than smaller cars.
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) or road tax rates are tiered based on emissions, with higher polluting petrol and diesel cars paying more.
While a number of SUVs these days are low-polluting hybrids or zero emission electric cars, there will be a large number of large SUVs that have to pay more because they emit more CO2.
The Land Rover Defender 90/110 V8 petrol, Land Rover Range Rover V8 petrol/RR Sport SV, Maserati Levante V6 petrol, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche Macan S/GTS, Ineos Grenadier, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio are just some of the SUVs that will cost £5,490 to tax next year.
Are electric SUVs the future?
There are now more than 130 electric car models in the market offering customers a huge range of electric SUVs to choose from
Fully electric SUVs have shown remarkable growth, rising from almost zero sales in Q4 2018 to nearly 20,000 by Q4 2023, GMAP analytics found.
Especially as hybrid electric vehicles are also included the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars, GMAP predicts an expected exponential increase in market share for fully electric SUVs.
While this is unlikely to resolve some issues such as the increasing size of SUVs compared to parking spaces, it will help both drivers and authorities hit zero emission targets and avoid emission chargers too.
It could then be that the move towards electric is the future of the SUV and it’s climbing status on UK roads.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
