Editor’s note: The organization Équiterre wanted to present its point of view on the argument that electric vehicles, with their additional weight compared to their gasoline equivalents, prematurely wear out our road infrastructure.
Are electric vehicles heavier than gasoline-powered cars? Should we be concerned about this extra weight for our road infrastructure, or does this question distract us from the real issue of the growing size of the vehicles that make up the Québec fleet?
It is true that electric vehicles can be heavier than their gasoline equivalents, but there is an important nuance to be made: electric vehicles are not the cause of the increase in the weight of the Québec car fleet. We can’t see the forest for the trees.
Whether gasoline-powered or electric, vehicles are simply getting heavier. One reason for this is the growing number of trucks in our vehicle fleet. Not only in Québec, but throughout North America, the vehicles on our roads are getting bigger and bigger. This trend of increasing vehicle size and weight mainly concerns pickup trucks and SUVs and precedes the arrival of electric vehicles by several years.
More than just a battery
The data speak for themselves. According to the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ)1, the average weight of passenger vehicles has increased by 240kg since 2004. The average weight of pickup trucks has increased by 500kg. For example, since 2000, the footprint of a Toyota RAV4 has increased by 35%.2
This increase in mass is not due to the popularity of electric vehicles, which will account for only 4% of registrations in 2023 (up by around 1% per year).3 It is the trend towards trucking that is to blame.
More than 28 models of sub-compact and compact cars have disappeared in recent years, small gasoline and electric cars often replaced by heavier, more imposing models because they are less profitable for the automotive industry. As a result, the number of “light” trucks4 over 2 tonnes on our roads increased by 475% between 2004 and 2023.
The issue of vehicle weight therefore goes beyond the batteries of electric vehicles (although these will indeed amplify the problem over the next few years). There are, for example, electric models that weigh far less than many gasoline-powered vehicles on our roads. For example, the Tesla Model Y, the world’s best-selling 100% electric car, weighs 1,907kg5, while an F-1506, the best-selling vehicle in Canada and the USA over the last 14 years in all categories, weighs 2,274kg without any accessories.
By combating the growing number of trucks in the vehicle fleet, we could easily offset the extra weight generated by the electrification of individual vehicles, while reducing the environmental issues associated with an increasingly heavy vehicle fleet.
What’s really at stake
Rather than targeting electric vehicles, the question of vehicle weight needs to be considered as a whole, whatever the propulsion mode. Indeed, increasing vehicle size (and consequently weight) impacts not only the environment, but also user safety and motorists’ wallets.
A large gasoline-powered vehicle (SUV or van, for example) produces on average 20% more GHGs7 than a car, due to the additional energy required to move it. In fact, the increase in the size of personal vehicles is responsible for 50% of the rise in GHGs in Québec since 2015.8
In terms of safety, large vehicles are twice as often involved in collisions with pedestrians as cars.9 In collisions with bicycles, they cause 55% more severe or fatal injuries to cyclists than cars.10 In both cases, this is due to the height of the hood and the larger blind spots.11
Finally, a full-size vehicle costs around $10,000 more to buy than a car, and $4,000 more annually, not least because of its extra fuel consumption.12
The heavier the vehicle, the higher the electricity consumption. Nevertheless, for people who really need a car, an electric model (of the right size for their needs) is preferable: it has a better environmental record and saves thousands of dollars in fuel and maintenance.
Choosing a smaller vehicle is therefore highly advantageous, for both energy and economic reasons, not to mention the many environmental and safety benefits.
Light electric vehicles are no threat to our infrastructure
Our infrastructures have been designed to support not only the weight of light vehicles, but also the loads of heavy trucks. Load limits apply equally to all types of vehicles, whether battery-powered or gasoline-powered. A recent research by Edinburgh University concludes that the electrification of light vehicles and light goods vehicles would have a negligible impact on the deterioration of road infrastructure, compared with gasoline-powered vehicles of equivalent size.
The myth that electric cars do more harm than good lacks nuance and distracts our attention from the root of the problem: the ever-increasing size and weight of our vehicle fleet is damaging our finances and our environment, as well as our health and safety. For our collective well-being, it’s time to return to human-sized vehicles.
Notes
- Data obtained from SAAQ’s Road Safety Reserach, July 22, 2024.
- https://transalt.org/reports-list/the-deadly-and-costly-impact-of-supersized-vehicles-on-new-york
- According to the inventory carried out by Équiterre in May 2024.
- The light truck category includes everything under 4.5 tonnes (4,500kg), including SUVs, pickup trucks, vans and minivans.
- See the comparison tool developed by Équiterre: https://www.equiterre.org/en/initiatives/no-suv-for-me
- DesRosiers Automotive
- État de l’énergie au Québec, édition 2024 (page 39)
- Inventaire québécois des émissions de gaz à effet de serre en 2019 et leur évolution depuis 1990
- LES CAMIONS LÉGERS Impacts de la transformation du parc de véhicules légers au Québec, Chaire Mobilité – Polytechnique, 2021.
- Higher point of impact makes SUV crashes more dangerous for cyclists, IIHS, April 13, 2023.
- Vehicles with higher, more vertical front ends pose greater risk to pedestrians, IIHS, November 14, 2023.
- Comprendre la hausse des camions légers au Canada afin de renverser la tendance, Équiterre, 2021.
Blandine Sebileau, Analyst, Sustainable Mobility, Équiterre