Electric Vehicles

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Evergreen6

You guys aren't quite seeing the full picture. While Honda, Toyota, and Nissan do sell sedans, look at the development of their crossover models over the last 25 years and their popularity relative to sedans and related sales volume. CRV and RAV 4...Honda and Toyota wouldn't survive here without those. Honda Pilot? Toyota Highlander? Nissan Rogue. The Ford Explorer and Grand Cherokee have been unibody "blobs" since 2010 for Ford and the GC has always been since the 90's. Runaway success with those two, and the Explorer was front wheel drive since then until 2020. It's not just GM, it's not all because of CAFE...utilitarian, non-sedan vehicles are extremely popular.

There is a lot of truth in here. Sedan volume was dropping long before the CAFE curves accelerated the process. For many years Accord and Camry were at the top of the best selling vehicles list. Now CR-V and RAV4 lead those brands in sales, even though Accord and Camry are arguably better cars than they ever were. Same is true of Hyundai and Kia. Sonata and Optima (K5) were top sellers in each brand until consumers started to prefer the Santa Fe and the Sportage. So, GM and Ford and Stellantis dropping sedans was not THE reason for sedans declining in volume. Factor? Yes. Cause? No. That would still be the growing popularity of sport utility vehicles and crossover utilities. That gave automakers the escape lane to fall into as they exited sedan segments. And blame the government for the categorization and separation of the CAFE fleets, but recognize that those fleets as well as the shadow area / footprint methodology was negotiated between EPA and automakers, not dictated. If it were dictated it would have been much, much worse.