Students: ‘Electric SUV with a lot of power not the right choice’

Anyone who is in the market for a new car is guided by many things in their search. Here on AutoWeek.nl you will find many people who are looking for a new car with a degree of enthusiasm and who also make choices from their heart. However, the Responsible Mobility Laboratory mainly brings together people who want to choose with their heads. These students and former students with an affinity for sustainable mobility think about how they can ultimately buy a ‘responsible’ car. The LVM looks at the current car supply and sees the electric car as the best option, but there is still plenty of room for improvement with EVs.

According to the LVM, EVs are best shaped as aerodynamically as possible, with the caveat that this has adverse consequences for the interior space. The LVM emphasizes that people often sit alone in the car and you should therefore ask yourself how often you need the full space. In the eyes of the LVM, an SUV is therefore quickly unnecessarily large and also inefficient. If you ever need that space, rent a van, for example.

The power of electric cars could also be slightly less. From 0 to 100 km/h in 10 seconds should be easy according to the LVM. “By using a motor with less power, it can also be smaller. This saves weight, space and materials.” According to the LVM, the best battery to choose now is the LFP battery, although that is not the best choice for a large range. No problem for the members of the LVM: “We, as environmentally conscious car buyers, are willing to sacrifice a greater range if it means buying a car with a battery made from more responsible materials, with lower environmental pressure.”

Now the (former) students hope that more people will think this way: “So stop buying large SUVs with way too much power, if you drive them alone nine times out of ten. Don’t choose a car just because it looks nice, but buy the car that is the most efficient. That saves money and is also better for people and the environment.” The LVM members themselves often do not yet own a car and still live in cities, but in the long term a car will also prove to be necessary for them when children come and they leave the city. With the emphasis on ‘necessary’, because it seems that the car purchase would prefer to be postponed as long as possible: “Now that many of us still live small and mainly in a city, we manage relatively well to organize our lives in this way. to ensure that we can actually function very well without a car.”