Apparently we all have to be conned into being evil

Andrew Simms with his usual perspicacity here:

But the SUV craze has been driven by marketing, so an obvious step would be to introduce tobacco-style bans on their advertising.

Consumers are fools who only buy because they’re brainwashed by advertising. Ban the brainwashing and all will be well. Using the car industry - home of the Ford Edsel - as the proof of this contention is something we might describe as less than evidentially valid.

But how did we get here and what can be done? SUVs didn’t just swarm on to city streets like a natural phenomenon – even if that’s the impression the adverts like to create. In a very short period of time, consumer behaviour was switched on to the SUV by massive marketing campaigns and new consumer debt models, in the shape of personal contract purchase (PCP) loans. In 2010, SUVs accounted for just one in 10 new car sales in the EU, but by last year this had climbed to over half. It’s a stunning example of how quickly a heavily polluting sector can change. Unfortunately for human health and the climate, it has been in the wrong direction. Why is not hard to understand. In a saturated car market, manufacturers found they could charge more and make more profit from SUVs.

The contention is that consumers all went and bought SUVs because they are more expensive. Which is not only less than evidentially valid it’s insane.

Consumers will indeed buy something they consider to be worth more but that’s a different contention:

Then there is the other problem: electric or not, SUVs are killers. People in a light vehicle are three times more likely to get seriously injured when in collision with a much bigger car than one of similar weight.

Ah, SUVs are safer for those who buy SUVs. Which does seems like a good enough reason for people to preferentially buy SUVs. But this then has its problems when we consider Simms’ insistence on that advertising. It should be illegal to tell you about greater safety?

But of course the real joy here is what this means for EVs. Which are, naturally, considerably heavier than ICE cars. Therefore they have all the same problems as larger ICE cars. So, presumably, under the Simms dispensation advertising them should be illegal.

We did note the perspicacity which Mr. Simms brings to discussions, didn’t we?