Post-SUV EV world would be dominated by small and lightweight cars: Citroen CEO

The world of electric vehicles won't be dominated by large bulky electric SUVs for long, believes Citroen CEO Vincent Cobee. He says the post-SUV world of electric vehicles will be dominated by smaller and lightweight cars. He also thinks that the incentives offered by governments for electric vehicles will gradually keep the bulky SUVs out of the circle, which would force EV buyers to opt for smaller electric cars. Also, this would propel the car manufacturers to revise their product strategy and focus on compact and lightweight models again, reports Autocar UK.

The British automotive publication has quoted Cobee saying that using aluminium instead of steel would increase manufacturing costs for the automakers. This would inevitably impact the sticker price of the vehicles. He also said that since the car manufacturers are exploring means to avoid higher production costs, they will look at other ways to boost the EV range. He believes that the automakers will focus more on making the future EVs aerodynamic since tall and boxy bodies hurt efficiency.

Cobee said that regulators would put brakes on the SUV boom by limiting incentives only to electric vehicles that weigh under a certain threshold, forcing the automakers to sooner or later engineer smaller EVs.

This comes as a quite interesting perspective from the top brass of the French auto giant, and that too at a time when auto manufacturers around the world are increasingly focusing on making SUVs to make a fortune. Consumers, too, are showing ever-increasing interest in buying SUVs than buying any other type of vehicle. The hype is so much that automakers who have traditionally shied away from making boxy SUVs have started making them to be on the profit path. For example, luxury car brands like Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, and Lamborghini - have all jumped on the SUV bandwagon to make more profit.

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