The old land yachts of the 60s and 70s were gigantic. They only had to get smaller because they couldn’t keep up with fuel economy. But now that they’re going electric and fuel economy isn’t a concern, it seems they have no reason to go small.
I think the problem is, as soon as some (domestic in the case of US because of the recent tariff) automaker makes a cheap electric small car that’s got room for 4 and 60-150 miles in range is gonna realize holy shit that’s 90% of the driving out there and will drastically undercut the premium market. tens of millions only drive a few dozen miles away from home for most of their activity.
Volkwagen ID. 3 for example. Tesla model 3 ain’t that big either. I’m not an expert on the US car markets.
Unfortunately the sedan form factors are limited right now, but looking like an SUV doesn’t mean it’s definitely a massive car. There’s small suvs and large ones. You can have suvs that are even smaller length and width wise than many sedans. Like take a Subaru impreza as an example, in the compact car class. Length is 176.2 inches and width is 70.1 inches. Now let’s take a smaller electric SUV, like the Hyundai Kona electric. Length is 171.5 and width is 71.9, so significantly shorter and barely wider than a compact car.
A lot of the electric suvs are in a compact car form factor in terms of their space footprint, but are just trying to get that SUV taller boxy look since that’s what is most popular with car buyers right now for some reason. They aren’t all like these massive Chevy Suburban type SUVS (length 225.7 inches and width 81 inches for reference).
But anyways the smallest ones in the US are probably like the Nissan leaf, tesla model 3, Hyundai Kona electric, Fiat 500e, mini Cooper electric, Volkswagen id.4, Chevy bolt (was a good option, skipping the 2024 model year though and releasing a redesign in 2025), Kia ev3 launching this year and will be even smaller than it’s current options, some of which are petty compact already. Hopefully we’ll keep getting more options. I’ve always been annoyed when Europe gets cool compact options that they don’t bother to sell in the US.
If it’s actually a Wrangler-like then yeah, yay, honestly
Wranglers are great off-road vehicles. Is it what most people use them for? No. Does that mean the option shouldn’t exist? No.
