This is no caricature and to scale. Guess which one of the two vehicles is not available in the US and which one is not available in the EU.
I think Trump is twisting arms to get our child-killing trucks and SUVs into Europe.
Europe really needs to grow a pair.
Well, the Cybertruck isn’t street legal in the EU to this day and I don’t foresee that to change.
They “caved in” just like they did years ago when they agreed to buy US beef… if it was produced to the neccessary standards nobody in the US ever met.
There is barely anything preventing US cars from being sold here technically. That they rarely meet minimum technical standards required in the EU by any vehicle and there is also no reason for EU citizens to buy such an abomination is the real point here. Only smooth-brains like Trump see not being treated preferential and being allowed to break the rules as a barrier for US trade.
Even before this trade pact, 7,000 monster American SUVs – the vast majority being RAM pick-ups – were sold in the EU during 2024 according to sales data analysed by T&E. These large US pick-up trucks were imported and registered in the EU without meeting European safety, air pollution or climate standards under a loophole known as Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA). In more detail:
Yes, that’s sad. Also that’s 0.9% of the cars registered in 2024 just in my country. Or ~ 0.001% of the total registered cars here.
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Yes there are loopholes (but those have nothing to do with that “pact”) and that is a problem but 7000 vehicles is a drop in the EU car market. That said, it is 7000 too many of them.
I am not too worried. US cars are simply increasingly less competitive by the day. Transition to electric is going on at a good rate. In a few years only Tesla will have competitive offers, (possibly not even they). Gas guzzlers will be items for the rare confused with too much money. Maybe some of those electric abominations could be an issue but then I’ll want to see that first. So far I don’t see any indication for that. Most people want affordable cars.
Also for any of that to happen in the first place, a number of laws would have to be scrapped and that needs majority in the Council and European Parliament. Given the hostility from the US and the not too popular nature of that demand let them try. Chances are very high that this “pact” will be obsolete by the time anyway.
Gas guzzlers will be items for the rare confused with too much money.
Rich people will always have their toys. But I think gas guzzlers will stick around longer for more poor people. They can’t afford new cars, and can barely afford used cars. The middle and upper class will transition to electric, and their old ICE cars will be sold (or occasionally given) to the poors.
I doubt that. The reason is simple, as soon as the EV used market balances out, used combustion engine cars will be more expensive to operate, making them an overall more expensive option, on top of being worse and more maintenance intensive. Norway is wealthy but not everyone there is rich. Yet they have 97% BEV among new sales now. Denmark will be next, soon enough and once Belgium and the Netherlands get there, the “only rich can afford BEVs” will be disproven for good. Without new ICE vehicles, also the used market will disappear eventually.
I think you’re overly optimistic. There are stupid, rich asshole everywhere.
Though I think a European infrastructure just wouldn’t support cars this size, so hopefully aggressive ticketing on the local level will discourage people from buying them.
There are stupid, rich asshole everywhere.
But stupid rich assholes are too small a group to sustain an industry. They will spend stupid amounts of money on ridiculous hand-crafted luxury cars but they will never actually have any real impact on the car industry as a whole market.
Yes, but if it is just a small number of people it can’t impact road safety as much as if there are masses of these vehicles on the road. I mean there are some idiots with Cybertrucks and individual certification in the EU, even though they appear to have largely shut up as the reputation of that thing has gone down the train even among Teslarites and lovers of oversized cars.
I am just not convinced that there will be a large number of people enticed to buy overpriced outdated vehicles with questionable quality reputation, no matter their size. Even if there will be some.
I am more worried about oversized cars from Europe itself or Asia but they got some dampening with the current energy prices and when it comes to EVs they came with an incredible extra price tag. There range matters and the huge tanks need to overcompensate with so much more battery capacity to have at least moderate range, that you pay a fortune to get a worse product.
Everything about cars is self reinforcing enshittification. Biking and walking would be GREAT if there were no cars, but once there are cars, everybody needs to get a car to avoid getting by a car. And then, once they have cars, they want to get bigger cars to protect themselves, and then other people get even BIGGER cars to protect themselves… it can happen there.
The safety is mostly a lie though. The big cars are hardly safer even for those inside, even compared to smaller cars and even if all the others are driving obscenely large vehicles. They are just more dangerous to everyone else.
Those vehicles don’t work at all in many cities. Most places are street parking only. No parking lots and no underground parking. Just parallel parking everywhere. Large vehicles don’t belong in major cities in Europe.
I highly recommend resistance
The one in front is the more useful and better pickup truck, isn’t it? Same bed size, much lower to the ground, ie easier to load and unload, potentially also from the side. It surely is also easier to navigate. But then, most of those huge pickup trucks (driven by end consumers) never carry more than some groceries.
That’s certainly my opinion. I used to have one and it was great. Easy to load/unload stuff out of the bed. Easy to see around when maneuvering in parking lots or whatever. Tires were cheap. My dad’s truck is more similar to the one in back, that thing handles like a school bus and has 2ft shorter bed than my old one did. It’s also higher off the ground so I have to climb in and out of the bed instead of just being able to step up into it like I could on my truck. Which is annoying. I have no idea what advantages people see in these newer monstrosities. My car is getting expensive to maintain and I would like to get a truck but I fucking hate all the options available these days. If they could make an EV like the front one in that picture I’d be first in line.
Interesting concept.
Although I would not call pre-ordering for July 2027 “now”.
They just opened up orders a few weeks ago. They’re ramping production now. Supposed to start deliveries in 4-6 weeks.
It’s a short bed.
These big cars should be illegal. Or at least require a special license. Hate seeing them here in the city taking up a ton of space.
They should be charged for the waste of space and danger they pose to others, for no good reason.
The Cadillac Escalade IQ (the white monstrosity) is a prime example for that. “But I need such a big car for my 4 kids” is an excuse I read. How many families still have 4 kids aside, such a large family can also get a PV5 from Kia. … ok, it would if one could actually buy the PV5 in the US. Do you see a pattern?
Still lets compare the PV5 and the Escalade “IQ”:
The PV5 has slightly more space inside, also flexible with option for 3 rows, costs 44500 EUR (incl. VAT), weighs 2.7t and has a WLTP range of 397 km.
The Escalade “IQ”, slightly less space, 1 m longer hood (dramatically worse road view), 20 cm wider, 130000 USD (before tax?), 4t ?!!!, but you get 750 km WLTP range
https://www.carsized.com/de/autos/vergleich/kia-pv5-2025-van-vs-cadillac-escalade-iq-2024-suv/
I always see scratches on the paint jobs of those big trucks taking up 4 spaces in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Three times I almost got caught.
Obama. Everything he’s signed off was half-assed and we’re paying for it and I voted for him. /lightnsfw replied with a picture; that sized taco was my first truck and I wanted something even smaller like the old VW pickup.
So essentially the bill for higher MPG vehicles had so many loopholes that basically every car became a tank; it’s generally impossible with the crash rating system requirements. Hence why hybrids and electric are so popular. But they also bring their own problems, weight. My tiny infinity/nissan will be a metal coffin met with a tesla. Same goes for the tacoma, and I don’t want to imagine the my old vw cabrio in that scenario.
Also the height is important in a lot of areas, well the space between the tires and the axle and engine. Where I’m at, my nissan would become a boat.
I would not ever buy an American car. These companies are pure trash.
Abolish personal vehicles
Capital serving fragile egos
Capital only serves capital. If small cars made more money they’d push them in their advertising and there would be more available.
Capital used regulatory capture to make large, profitable vehicles more available, then sold people on the idea that they needed one.
Small cars are dangerous because larger cars can crush them.
This is the legitimately the logic.
The world is an insane asylum.
Small cars are dangerous because larger cars can crush them.
That’s true in a world of cars, not in one for people though where the driver of the small car sees you and might hurt you if they screw up while the driver of that big ass pseudo-tank(*) just kills you without having ever realized you were there.
(*)scrap that: actual tanks have better visibility than those idiotic US trucks never hauling anything…
Safe for the occupants, not pedestrians
There’s also the ads that show big cars as capable and rugged, associating them with positive imagery.
This subconscious suggestion is then justified by making it a safety issue.
Bigger is more comfortable to sleep in I guess and can hold more personal items. :P
Driving here - because I have no choice if my family is to remain supported and moving would mean not supporting family - is a daily exercise in dodging oversized vehicles that are piloted by people who haven’t the faintest concept how to actually handle their vehicles at any speed and who drive them far too fast. I keep safe distances, and the number of times I have had two to three cars swerve in front of me simultaneously to then all slam on the brakes and force me to take evasive action is honestly too many to count. I miss my walkable city that allowed me 30 years of life with no need for a vehicle that wasn’t public transit.
My young ex terrified me the way the drove one of those huge SUVs like it was a car. They were constantly at the edge of the vehicle’s performance, braking needlessly late and taking corners sharp instead of turning wide, constantly engaging the vehicle’s ABS and traction control on what they thought of as a casual drive around town. Most people seem to have no idea that they are driving a heavy vehicle or what that means.
