During the COVID they couldn’t put brakes on a new gasoline powered truck because of the chip shortage, of all things. Didn’t stop Tesla from expanding production and completing their vehicles though, ironically.
They also make better markup on trucks, making sedans a tough sell. I’ve got a sedan that gets decent fuel economy now, but once it is paid off (probably early next year) I plan to get a small SUV or crossover, I can clamber in and out of those much more easily.
Sedans are next to impossible with the CAFE standards. Which is why SUV/CUV’s have become the dominant.. their CAFE standards are allow lower MPG for “light trucks” than passenger vehicles.
There aren’t that many sedans made any longer.
The 2025 CAFE Standards requirements WERE before Trump tossed them were as follows:
A full size sedan must get 52.8 MPGs to meet CAFE standards.
A Mid Size sedan must get 60.2 MPG to meet CAFE standards
A compact care must get 67 MPG to meet CAFE standards
For Light Trucks
Small SUV 50.7
Midsize Crossover: 46.3
Minivan: 41.9
Full Size Pickup 35.3
This is the “FOOTPRINT” used for cars and trucks
Compact car footprint 40 Square feet.
midsize footprint 46 square feet
full size footprint 53 square feet.
Light Truck:
small suv footprint 43 square feet.
Midsize Crossover footprint: 49 square feet
Minivan 55 Square Feet
large pickup 57 Square feet.
So as you can see a small SUV can have up to 3 more square feet of footprint, but had a cafe standard of 16MPG less.
A similar delta exist across all the the sizes. This, this is the single biggest reasons SUV’s came to dominate. Every car that doesn’t meet its CAFE standards includes a FINE to the government sold.
Now, the NISSA VERSA and the Mitsubishi Mirage are among the smallest cars sold in America today. The Versa has a combined MPG rating of 30 to 35 combined depending on model, and the Mirage 39.
Neither of these comes close to the 67 MPG the Biden CAFE would have required.
MPG/CAFE rules have actually forced the market into larger vehicles, because you can’t sell a small car, because when you sell one you have a fine to the government that comes with each one and gets added to its cost to the consumer.
So yes, some of the move to SUV’s has been consumer preferences, but the sedan is being killed by regulation