There was a time, not terribly long ago, when full-size trucks were a rather rare sight on European roads. There, folks mostly gravitated toward hatchbacks, sedans, vans, and smaller pickups, but in recent years, we’ve started to see more and more bigger trucks on those same roads. That includes the Ford F-150, which launched in Europe back in Q1 2023 via a partnership with Hedin Mobility Group, followed by the Ford F-150 Lightning in places like Switzerland. Turns out, the Ford F-150 and other full-size trucks are truly gaining traction with European customers, too.
According to The Guardian, the number of Ram 1500 pickups in the UK has increased by 20 percent in just the past year – totaling around 5,000 pickups. The Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado are also growing in popularity, much to the chagrin of critics, however, who point out that such models skirt emissions standards as they’re imported via what’s known as individual vehicle approval (IVA), subjecting them to less scrutiny than vehicles brought in under more traditional circumstances.
Even though less than one percent of new vehicle registrations across Europe belonged to large trucks in 2023, critics also point to various safety concerns revolving around those types of vehicles and larger SUVs. A recent study from the Vias institute in Belgium found that a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a pickup was 90 percent more likely to be serious injured than someone hit by a regular car, and nearly 200 percent more likely to be killed.
“Europe should ban the Ram,” said Dudley Curtis from the European Transport Safety Council. “This type of vehicle is excessively heavy, tall and powerful, making it lethal in collisions with normal-sized vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.” “People buying the SUVs are either very selfish and do not care about anyone else on the street, or, more likely, they just do not think of those issues,” added Robin Hickman, a transport planner at University College London. “It may [one day] be their children walking out of the football pitch or the cricket pitch who get run over by an SUV, and then they would be horrified.”
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Years ago, I knew a guy that had moved to the USA from Spain. Initially, he had nothing but bad things to say about America and complained about all our stuff and general “decadence.” Or, as he said with that Castilian lisp, “decadanthse.” And then he went shopping at an outlet. And bought bags, and bags, and bags of stuff. He got hooked and shortly saw the error of his ways. I see echoes of that experience in this post. Once Europeans drive F-150s, they will never want to go back to their under-powered econoboxes again. They might publicly still turn up their noses at them trucks, privately, their hearts will yearn for big, bold, American-style power. Big is good.
Agreed. I had a buddy from Ukraine, he drove a 00s Civic Coupe, and always lambasted how “excessively huge” my compact SUV was.
After spending some time driving larger American vehicles, he ended up buying a crew cab f150 and being in love with it.
In Europe petroleum is more expensive and roads are narrower. There is more walking, bicycling, and use of public transit. These big vehicles only make up one percent of the personal transportation fleet–more than in the past but unlikely to become the majority.
I don’t agree with the professor, to many car’s and to many people is not the fault of the vehicle, it is the fault of the government who never introduced limit’s on child birth like china and to much immigration .