That really reinforces the root comment's point about fashions in vehicle choice / driving what everyone else does being the 'safe option'. The countries most similar in culture and affluence to the US don't seem to buy those passenger utility vehicles and passenger cars in nearly the same proportions, so fashion looks like a big part of vehicle choice.
There are two things that drive the popularity of small SUVs/Crossovers in the US. First, gas is cheap: $2.50 a gallon vs ~$5.50 a gallon in the EU. One can get the benefit of more space and safety without paying an energy penalty. Second, the average household size is 3.1 in the US vs 2.3 in the EU. 22% of US households have 4 or more people. There is a demand for larger cars to carry more people.
gas is not $2.50/ga everywhere. in california it’s around $5/ga atm. i think the big difference is how spread out things are in the US vs EU. in the EU i may very well be able to go on a road trip in a electric vehicle. in the US, given how few charging stations there are this isn’t really possible.
how come americans have much bigger families than europeans? is it due to a higher immigration % of the general population or do "native" americans have more children than europeans?
I was under the impression children per woman correlates pretty well to economic development.
In Canada [1] -- looks like about 3 out of the top 10 models are "passenger cars".
In Australia [2] - it's the same thing. 3 out of 10 are passenger cars (and both have a top 2 being a pickup - although the .au spread isn't as wide as .ca)
Looking at models doesn't shed too much light, because some categories have their sales more concentrated across a few models than others. The post I was responding to used "The number of light trucks sold in September 2019 is almost three times the number of 'passenger cars'."
For Australia the same figure was 2.4 times ( https://www.caradvice.com.au/797477/vfacts-september-2019/ ) and 2.1 times in August - though this is only a recent change in the Australian market (passenger car sales being down considerably in 2019 versus 2018).
But yeah, the difference isn't as much as I thought it was, primarily because I didn't realise until looking into it now that crossover SUVs like RAV4s and CX-5s are considered 'light trucks' in those US figures.
