Mindgames on Wheels: Our latest report

Our new report ‘Mind Games On Wheels’ explores the how advertising for SUVs has developed over many decades. Despite advertisers using themes of rugged nature, off-road, wilderness and adventure, our new research finds that 75% of these highly-polluting vehicles are registered to urban addresses.

One of the most common arguments justifying the need for driving SUVs is that “consumers are buying the cars they need to meet the practical demands of their lifestyle.” This would mean that the majority of people owning an SUV live in rural or hard-to-reach areas where they need a large vehicle with off-road capabilities to get about. Through analysing the distribution of UK car registrations, we wanted to investigate whether the  common argument often made in response to our call for an SUV ad ban stands up to scrutiny.

Results

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Using registration data from the Department of Transport (DofT) of cars registered from 2018 to 2020, we conducted an analysis to find out the real distribution of SUV vehicles sold across the UK. Our analysis into the distribution of car registration in the UK found exactly the opposite is true - the majority of SUVs are not bought for their off-road features.

  • Three quarters of all SUVs sold in the UK are registered to people living in towns and cities.

  • The largest SUVs are most popular in three London boroughs - Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Westminster.

  • One in three new private cars bought in these areas is a large SUV.

What does this all mean? 

SUV companies commonly use phrases like ‘get back to nature’ and ‘help the environment’ to upsell environmentally damaging products and sell consumers a false reality. The largest, heaviest class of SUVs, are specifically designed to have genuine 4-wheel drive and off-roading capability suitable for rural, not urban use. Despite this, large SUVs are not sold to people who live in rural areas, but end up in heavily congested cities and towns contributing to road blocks, pollution levels, climate change and posing a danger to civilians.

London has a world class public transport network, but zero opportunities for off-roading- so why are we still heavily promoting, through advertising pressures, such highly polluting vehicles? SUVs produce 25% more CO2 emissions than a medium sized car. If we’re going to reduce emissions, this means cracking down on advertising that is misleading and harmful to our planet. 

What you can do about it

Sign our petition asking for the government to put an end to environmentally-damaging SUV adverts. We need to stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency. When our petition reaches 10,000 signatures we’ll send the petition to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the UK government asking them to consider our demands.

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