Light Truck Explosion | Green Energy News

November 7, 2004 – Vol.9 No.33

LIGHT TRUCK EXPLOSION.

Think the roads are clogged now in the U.S? Buckle your seatbelt: the vehicle population is exploding. And light trucks, SUV’s and minivans will soon be almost half the vehicles on the road.

According to a study by R.L. Polk & Co. there will be 16 million more light vehicles - as many as 234.4 million vehicles - on U.S. roads by July 1, 2008 - less than 5 years from now.

Now, R.L. Polk says passenger cars make up about 60 percent of the vehicles-in-operation (VIO) and light trucks (which include SUVs and minivans) are 40 percent of VIO. By the summer of ‘05 cars will decrease to 54.7 percent, light trucks rise to 45.3 percent.

But all is not lost. Many of the new vehicles to clog the roads will be hybrids. Ford’s Escape hybrids should soon begin to show up in traffic snarls. Toyota is reporting that it has more than 9500 orders for its 2006 Lexus RX 400h luxury hybrid. The hybrid SUVs will actually get better fuel economy than many mid-size passenger cars.

Further, some of the newer SUVs to come on line will actually be crossover vehicles and the number of small SUVs in the market place seems to be growing too.

However, bad news again. The growth rate of VIO may not be evenly dispersed throughout the U.S. As the human population continues to grow dramatically along the nation’s coasts (and subsequently declines in the nation’s heartland) expect congestion (along with its evil partner pollution) to grow in the those areas.

Time to move inland. (If you can find a job that is.) Visit R.L. Polk at http://www.polk.com/