How is this news? Yes, you need more energy to move a larger heavier object…Granted, the older engines might not be the most efficient but they weren’t that bad that you can compensate a weight increase of this magnitude!
Seems obvious compared to smaller cars. How about compared to pickups? Those are probably worse?
Yeah, old pickups were gas guzzlers. But pickups as ordinary commuter cars are incredibly rare in the UK.
It’s a major problem that they’re mostly sold for that purpose in the US.
“Light trucks” (in the US, at least) don’t have to meet the same fuel economy standards as passenger automobiles, the latter of which includes SUVs. So you build a massive luxury crew cab with a tiny, essentially useless bed, and you can emit more pollution than if it had a permanent “cover” and connected the passenger cabin with the cargo area.