Our cars are getting bigger. Vehicle ‘supersizing’ – particularly in cities – has negative impacts on both health and climate.
Evidence that big vehicles, like utes and SUVs, are more polluting; that they are driven in more dangerous ways; and that they ‘shrink’ the availability and safety of street space for groups such as children, pedestrians, and disabled people means that we need to monitor and control their impacts.
In this working paper we look at the rise of ‘double cab utes’ in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Woodward, A. Wild, K. Shaw, C., Gage, R. and Lindsay, G. (2026) Vehicle supersizing and risks to health and climate: Exploring the real-world use of double-cab utes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Working paper. Auckland: University of Auckland. https://doi.org/10.17608/k6.auckland.31810861
We look at where and how these large vehicles are being used; and whether we need more regulation of their use in our cities, given the large risks they pose to both health and climate. Efforts to control their growth have been opposed by the NZ motor vehicle industry on the grounds that utes are ‘irreplaceable’. We argue their real world use does not support this claim.