It may seem like nerdy detail that the increasing weight of cars is worsening potholes, but it matters.

The car makers push to sell wider and heavier cars is increasing road maintenance costs and that affects us all.

Not to mention worse crash outcomes and less space to pass (wider) parked cars.

April 11, 2026 - 05:49 UTC

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The cognitive dissonance of motoring!
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This nonsense. This isn’t research - it’s a bunch of talking heads gathered together by the Graun for a cheap fear story.

The effect of slightly heavier private vehicles is negligible compared to much much heavier Lorry’s and buses.

Ignore it until actual research is published.
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Not many buses or large hgvs on the residential ( potholed) side roads near me, ( plenty of SUVs though. Which also have the added problem of making the useable road narrower)
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If you bothered to look, there is actual research. Road wear increases at the square of axle weight.
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And of course HGVs never travel on our roads…
🙄
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It definitely the cars.
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Cars have become heavier (including EVs), but wheels and tyres have become larger too, so has the 'pavement loading' (mass over a given area) increased disproportionately?

Is increasing speed (and therefore kinetic energy exerted downwards) also a factor?
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Always surprised that camper vans never get a mention
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All of this is obvious with some reasoning, and yet regulators keep allowing cars to get bigger and heavier.
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To some extent regulators were the cause: early iterations of NCAP required safety features which had to go somewhere, so cars got bigger to accommodate them. And batteries are still heavier then petrol 🙄
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Not nerdy at all! It's something that needs highlighting.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

It's an increasing problem for multistorey car parks too, not designed for these vehicles, structural failures will increase - and they don't fit the spaces either.
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There are multiple other factors that come into play.

A Highway designed for a 44tn artic would laugh off any SUV's axel load if properly maintained using that simplistic 4th power law.

This simplistic claim is being used as an "EV's are bad" argument.

share.google/3LbmeP2iGpnvNpOtZ
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the footpaths are getting worse too as more people are driving and parking these things on them
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Well said I thought it was just me but I’ve noticed more accidents here in Devon with these new bigger electric vehicles.
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Many of our roads are little more than partway that have had asphalt applied over the top. As the weight and volume of traffic has increased as the roads are failing. Worse on country roads where wider cars have increased overrunning of the road edge.
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It’s been known for years that road damage is proportional to the 4th power of axel weight !
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Not nerdy at all! And it’s not only potholes in roads. Combined with the growing enthusiasm for parking cars on pavements (which aren’t designed to take the same type of weight as roads) these are being trashed too. Is anyone tracking the rate of decline and need for repair of pavements?
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The damage to road verges in rural areas is also noticeable, especially as SUV go faster, displace more water further and wash the soil out of road side trees and hedge, causing tree falls. Also widening of roads. As a cyclist we are constantly seeing the deep drops where the tarmac ends.
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Size of the "mini" nowadays...
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That’s not a standard mini. It’s a mini countryman. An SUV. Compare like with like or you’ve lost the argument.
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Tax them to the highest extent possible and introduce an extended driving test in order to drive one. That’ll fix it.
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Not worried about electric cars.
Sort the corrupt lobbying of the road haulage industry out, that has kept the railways down for years.
The present system is irrational.
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It would make sense - pothole levy on weight of cars?
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And HGVs?
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It’s actually 14 years of Tory neglect that’s caused this. Blaming the road users who pay about £43bn in taxes each year is a bit much, when the repair bill is £19bn.
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As are electric vehicles which due to the weight of the batteries are heavier than a petrol version of the car would be!
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It is important, and I'm pretty sure that (eg) if you compare a VW Golf today with one from 20 years ago you'll see bloat.

However, if people weren't buying inappropriately huge cars, manufacturers would stop selling them.
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It’s not consumer demand. Manufacturers push these cars because they have larger profit margins.
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Lots of research evidence now on the increased danger from SUVs.
www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2025/being-hit-suv-increases-likelihood-death-or-serious-injury
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It would be great if the government had the courage to make a big increase in vehicle tax for these monster cars.
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At the other end of the ‘cars breaking things’ scale, I was wondering whether part of the reason for the parlous state of Albert Bridge was the increasingly heavy vehicles going over it that it just wasn’t designed for? Yet more infrastructure spending for the public purse
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Certainly the weight and speed of traffic affects structures that were built for lighter loads. That’s why the speed limit gets lowered on flyovers like the Westway.
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They also break more things in accidents as p = m x v
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I hope cars stay off Albert bridge permanently. It would be lovely to more comfortably cycle and walk to Battersea Park.
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Past time SUVs and these 'monster trucks' were taxed to fvk or banned.

They aren't needed.

If you want off road capability, buy a Land Rover or Toyota equiv.
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