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Australia’s top-selling cars are becoming more dangerous for other motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, as sports utility vehicles and utes replace family sedans as the country’s vehicle of choice.

Experts say the country’s lack of emissions standards has driven the importation of larger gas guzzlers while tax perks have encouraged motorists to buy bigger vehicles than they need, as alarm now grows over the new generation of oversized American trucks arriving on local streets.

A RAM truck stopped over the pedestrian crossing in Melbourne’s CBD on Friday. Credit: Joe Armao

SUVs and light commercial vehicles including utes made up 76 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia in 2022 – up from 45 per cent a decade ago. Sedans and other passenger cars dropped from half of all new cars sold to just one-in-five over the same period.

Most new vehicles sold in Australia have a 5-star rating under the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), but Monash University Accident Research Centre director Stuart Newstead said those ratings did not fully reflect the danger posed to others when motorists bought larger vehicles.

“The risk of death and serious injury posed by a ute compared to a medium car is about 30 per cent higher,” he said. “So you’ve got to ask yourself, does everyone need to driving around in a ute? I don’t think so.”

Manufacturers, however, said one-third of SUVs sold are small models and that new cars are consistently getting safer.

Monash researchers used real-world crash data to rate the “aggressivity” of hundreds of vehicles based on how often they inflict serious or fatal injuries on other motorists, pedestrians and cyclists out of every 100 crashes.

Large SUVs recorded the highest average aggressivity rating at 5.46 deaths or serious injuries per 100 crashes, followed by vans (5.09) and utes (4.80), while a light car is 2.76. A Toyota HiLux – the most sold vehicle in Australia last year – had a rating of 5.71, making it almost twice as dangerous to other people than 2012’s top-selling Mazda 3 (3.10).

Analysis by this masthead of Australia’s top 20 selling cars over the past decade shows average weighted aggressivity has increased from 3.79 deaths or serious injuries per 100 crashes in 2012 to 4.05 deaths and serious injuries in 2022.

Last year 1194 people were killed on Australian roads, a number that has been broadly stable for the past decade. Pedestrians made up 146 of those deaths, motorcyclists 244 and cyclists 35.

Experts believe large SUVs and large pickup trucks are a key driver of a 77 per cent jump in pedestrian deaths in the United States between 2010 and 2021.

Some of the largest American models of oversized utility vehicles are being released on the Australian market, including the Ford F-150 series and the Ram 1500, which struggles to fit into a standard parking space given its 2.08 metre width.

Victoria Walks executive officer Ben Rossiter said vehicles that wide were particularly dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians crossing narrow streets, and often totally unnecessary.

“Most of them I see are not towing anything,” Rossiter said. “It feels like it’s an arms race – people buy bigger vehicles because it makes them feel safe, but it makes it unsafe for others.

“We really need to have conversations around taxing bigger vehicles and these massive vehicles because of the road trauma risks.”

Some cities have started to discourage SUVs, with Paris authorities last month announcing they would tackle “auto-besity” by imposing higher parking fees on the vehicles based on weight and size.

Australasian College of Road Safety chief executive Ingrid Johnston said the high fronts on SUVs and large utes could cause blind spots of up to four metres in front of the driver, making them particularly dangerous for children.

The higher point of impact meant struck pedestrians were more likely to suffer head or neck injuries rather than leg injuries, and were also more likely to be knocked down and run over rather than flip onto the bonnet, she said.

SUVs and utes accounted for three-quarters of Australian vehicle sales last year.Credit: Joe Armao

“Pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries are reducing at a much slower rate than driver fatalities and serious injuries, and that is correlating precisely with the increase in vehicle size,” Johnston said. “So we need to be taking this risk seriously and thinking about how we can reduce it.”

Grattan Institute transport director Marion Terrill said manufacturers had been encouraged to import their least fuel-efficient cars – which were often their largest – because Australia did not have fuel emissions standards in place, while tax perks encouraged people to buy more expensive models.

“[Electric vehicles] will help with emissions and pollution, but EVs can’t solve the problems of accidents, congestion or dominance of public space,” Terrill said. “There should be no place for tax concessions like the fringe benefits tax concession that subsidise the purchase of big vehicles.”

A federal pandemic support measure had allowed small business owners to claim an instant asset write-off when they bought utes worth up to $150,000. The Albanese government reduced the threshold to $20,000 from July this year and has pledged to introduce fuel efficiency standards.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Peter Griffin disputed the claim that the vehicle fleet had become significantly larger, with small SUVs accounting for one-third of those sold last year.

Griffin acknowledged that American mega-trucks “weren’t for everyone”, but said they made up only 600 of the 97,000 new cars sold last month. Safety and sustainability were key factors consumers considered, he said, and dual-cab utes were often doubling as both a work vehicle and family car, he said.

“Australian consumers buy a wide range of vehicles, from a lot of brands and with lots of different body types – Australians are spoilt for choice,” he said. “Sometimes, maybe they don’t need those cars, but quite often they probably do.”

A spokesperson for the federal Department of Infrastructure said road vehicle standards ensured all vehicles – including the new generation RAM and Ford F-series utes – were safe for local driving conditions, which included limits on dimensions, braking systems and other safety features.

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