SUVs elevated bonnets spark warnings of 'growing public safety threat'

The ever-increasing height of bonnets on new cars sold in the UK has become a 'clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children,' a new report claims. The dramatic rise in popularity of SUVs has been blamed for triggering the trend for bonnets to increase in height by half a centimetre annually for the last 15 years. The higher front of cars significantly increases the death rate when pedestrians are struck, as they are more likely to be pulled under a moving vehicle rather than bounce off them, it said.

The analysis also suggested that drivers in the tallest SUV models can no longer see a child as old as nine when they are standing immediately in front of the vehicle. Transport & Environment, the green campaign group behind the study that has been lobbying for the demise of SUVs for years, says the UK has an especially large number of cars with the tallest bonnets. It attributes this to a high volume of sales of Land Rovers, which - along with Jeep - only sells vehicles with bonnet heights of over a metre. Its researchers accused these car firms of 'trading on the intimidation that comes with high-fronted vehicles [and] ignoring their related dangers'.

A Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson responded to T&E's claims telling This is Money: 'JLR is committed to the highest safety standards and our vehicles are made with the strictest adherence to safety requirements. We continually invest in safety and advanced technology features – which, amongst other things, include pedestrian detection, 3D surround camera systems, and autonomous emergency braking (AEB).' While Land Rover and Jeep were singled out in the report, both have traditionally only sold 4X4 vehicles for years as part of their long heritage. The report said that in a collision with a pedestrian, a high-bonneted SUV is more likely to strike the vital organs in the core of an adult's body - and the head of a child. When colliding with a pedestrian above their mid-section, there is an elevated likelihood that they are knocked forward and down - and then ran over by the same car that's hit them, it warns.

In contrast, vehicles with lower bonnets tend to collide with pedestrians' legs, resulting in them falling onto the vehicle or being deflected to one side and away from secondary danger. The environmental think tank's analysis of the new car market found that the average bonnet height of a passenger car sold in the UK rose from 77cm in 2010 to 84cm in 2024. A study conducted by Loughborough University School of Design on behalf of the campaign group tested drivers' visibility of children from the highest-fronted cars on sale. It found that a driver of a Ram TRX pick-up truck would be unable to see children aged up to nine (1.36m tall on average) when standing directly in front of the bumper. Motorists at the wheel of a Land Rover Defender were said to not be able to spot a child up to the age of four and a half (1.1m tall on average) when they were stood in front of the bumper. It suggested this increased the risk of accidents involving children in urban areas, particularly in town centres and around schools where pedestrians are likely to walk in close proximity to vehicles at a standstill in traffic or pulling out of parking spaces.

This increase in car bonnet heights correlates with a huge surge in SUV demand, with jacked-up 4X4-type models representing more than half (56 per cent) of all new cars registered in Europe last year - up from just 12 per cent in 2010. In the UK, SUV sales in 2024 overtook superminis for the first time in history to become drivers' favourite new car body type, representing 33 per cent of all registrations. A decade earlier, SUVs accounted for just 12 per cent of new cars entering Britain's roads. A recent study suggested that Britons are increasingly being pushed into choosing these larger vehicles because SUVs make up more than half of all car options in UK car showrooms.

There are 193 different SUV and 'crossover' (conventional hatchbacks with increased ride height) variations across the 35 most popular brands sold in the UK in 2025, a report by CarGurus found. This is an uplift of 543 per cent compared to 2000 when just 35 SUV variants were available, the comprehensive review of the new car market revealed. T&E has already criticised the automotive sector's shift to SUVs, describing it as 'carspreading' and 'autobesity'. It said the industry has allowed newer vehicles to become much larger in scale to seem more appealing to drivers but to the detriment of vulnerable road users - including cyclists - who are more likely to suffer injury if hit by one. 'The intention is clear: [car] companies are trading on the intimidation that comes with high-fronted vehicles, ignoring their related dangers,' the report said. 'The rise in high-fronted SUVs poses a clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children. With no benefit to society, it's time for lawmakers at all levels to act,' it concluded.

There is no legal limit to bonnet height in the UK and Europe. However, T&E called on policymakers to introduce one for 2035, restricting them to selling cars with front ends no taller than 85cm. 'A child is killed every day on our roads, yet cars are being made so large that children are invisible from the driver's seat. How is that acceptable?' said Barbara Stoll, senior director of T&E's Clean Cities campaign. 'Thankfully, more and more city leaders are pushing back against carspreading, standing up for what citizens actually want – safe, green streets without monster vehicles.' Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: 'Over the past decade the number of pedestrians hurt or killed on the roads has fallen, but only at around half the rate of car occupants. It is incumbent on carmakers to ensure they pay enough attention to those around a vehicle as to those within it, and that will include making assessments about car heights and weights.'

T&E's report is the latest in a wave of criticisms of SUVs, which has resulted in calls for them to be axed from city centres on space, environmental and safety grounds. Paris and Lyon in France, and Aachen in Germany, are among the cities that charge bigger cars more to park. In the UK, councils in Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford and Haringey in London are looking into similar measures. Last week, Sir Sadiq Khan was urged to seek higher taxes and parking fees for SUVs . London Assembly Members agreed a motion calling on the mayor to take action because of fears that the increasing size of cars is damaging road surfaces, causing congestion and putting other road users at greater risk of death and severe injury.

The London Assembly called on Sir Sadiq to ask the Treasury to amend vehicle excise duty to include a tax based on vehicle weight. It also wants the mayor to request that councils in the capital consider charging more for parking larger cars, and to call on the Department for Transport to introduce tighter limits on the size and bonnet height of passenger vehicles. The motion was agreed by 14 votes in favour and eight votes against. The International Energy Agency recorded record global SUV sales in 2024 and record SUV CO2 emissions of one billion tonnes. If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the fifth most polluting in the world, the IEA said.