The shockingly-small number of traditional car models still produced by America's big three manufacturers - as Ford CEO fears they may have gone too far with SUV and truck lineups

They were erstwhile nan bastion of classical cars for illustration nan Corvette, nan Mustang and nan Chrysler 300.

But coming nan 'Big Three' American automakers - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - make fewer car models different than SUVs and elephantine pickup trucks. 

A caller study by the Boston Globe claimed nan 3 manufacturers only make 8 existent cars. However, study by DailyMail.com recovered location were 13. 

Across nan dozens of vehicles they make, sedans dress up a mini percentage. And astir of those sedans are precocious capacity musculus cars that aren't applicable for nan mean personification aliases family. 

Ford's only sedan successful accumulation is nan Mustang, while Chrysler discontinued accumulation of nan Chrysler 300, its only remaining ample sedan, successful 2023. 

GM, which owns Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, manufactures nan astir mini cars by far, but again, astir of them are built pinch horsepower aliases luxury successful mind, not practicality. The Chevy Camaro, nan Corvette and nan Cadillac CT4 predominate GM's car lineup.

Out of nan large three, it appears nan only remaining non-luxury, non-sports car that's still churning retired caller models each twelvemonth is nan Chevy Malibu.

Ford CEO Jim Farley acknowledges nan problem - nan truth that American car makers for illustration his ain person fundamentally ceded sedan income complete to Asian manufacturers for illustration Toyota and Honda.

The Toyota Camry is nan best-selling sedan successful nan US by acold this year, pinch nan Honda Civic adjacent behind, according to Kelley Blue Book data. 

There simply is nary American-made sedan that comes anyplace adjacent that level of dominance.

'We person to commencement to get backmost successful emotion pinch smaller vehicles. It's ace important for our nine and for EV adoption,' Farley told nan Globe. 

Of course, there's a logic why American automakers person spent nan past 10 years aliases truthful ditching mini cars for 'monster vehicles,' arsenic Farley puts it.

Ford's F-Series pickup trucks person been America's best-selling conveyance for decades and remains nan astir celebrated moreover to this day.

Similarly, a 2024 study by iSeeCars recovered that SUVs - aliases Sport Utility Vehicles - are nan ascendant mode of proscription successful 48 retired of 50 states, pinch California and Hawaii being nan only places wherever drivers for illustration smaller cars.

That's apt because California and Hawaii person immoderate of the highest state prices successful nan country, and traditionally, nan astir substance businesslike cars are sedans.

Bigger vehicles didn't ever person a stranglehold connected nan marketplace for illustration this. In 2012, GM, Ford and Chrysler brought successful a astir adjacent magnitude of rate from cars and trucks, according to manufacture watcher AutoPacific.

By astir 2014 aliases 2015, nan penning was connected nan wall that governments astir nan world would yet enforce stricter caps connected emissions to woody pinch ambiance change. Nearly each federation connected Earth committed to nan Paris Climate Agreement successful 2016.

The car industry's consequence to this was to waste arsenic galore vehicles pinch soul combustion engines arsenic they could earlier nan crackdown began.

Then nan pandemic struck successful 2020, bringing proviso chains to a screeching halt. This was a problem for car makers because arsenic vehicles get much blase and computerized, they request semiconductor chips, which were successful radically short proviso astatine nan time.

Ed Kim from AutoPacific told nan Globe that car companies focused moreover much heavy connected nan large vehicles successful their lineup because it made them nan astir money.

'If you are an automaker and you’ve sewage a constricted proviso of chips and parts, if you are only going to make truthful galore vehicles, you are going to prioritize nan astir profitable models,' he said. 

However, pinch nan advent of Tesla becoming 1 of nan astir highly weighted companies successful nan world during nan 2021 electrical conveyance craze, immoderate American car makers attempted a pivot.

GM was one, announcing successful January 2021 that it would electrify its full lineup by 2035. It moreover aired a Super Bowl advertisement that twelvemonth featuring Will Ferrell that challenged Norway's EV dominance.

But erstwhile it became clear successful precocious 2023 that the marketplace wasn't rather fresh to wholly displacement complete to EVs, GM abandoned its extremity of producing 400,000 electrical cars by mid-2024, The Wall Street Journal reported.

So, nan institution ran backmost into nan arms of its rate cow, nan gas-powered ray truck. 

This paid off, pinch nan Chevy Silverado and nan GMC Sierra remaining immoderate of nan best-selling cars successful nan US. 

Although nan displacement from compact cars to trucks has been profitable, its had a immense effect connected nan situation and infrastructure.

The Environmental Protection Agency said nan proscription assemblage - which includes each types of cars - accounted for largest percent of human-contributed greenish location state emissions successful 2022.

Passenger cars and ray work vehicles for illustration SUVs and ray trucks made up 57 percent of emissions, while mean and heavy-duty trucks unsocial represented 23 percent.

Heavier work trucks emit much planet-warming gases than trains, ships, and planes combined.

And SUVs were recovered to beryllium the 2nd largest contributor to increases successful emissions complete nan years of 2010 to 2018, nan nonstop years this type of conveyance began to predominate nan roads.

Beyond nan biology effect of larger cars, nan country's roads, bridges and parking tons haven't been capable to support up pinch increasing conveyance sizes. 

Transport & Environment, a European defense group, estimates that vehicles are getting wider by roughly four-tenths of an inch each year.

This is wreaking havoc successful Europe wherever half of vehicles sold are now wider than nan government-set parking space, thing agreed upon successful nan 1990s erstwhile nan mean car was overmuch smaller.

But moreover nan US, whose citizens person agelong had a penchant for large vehicles, it is communal to spot a pickup motortruck failing to fresh wrong nan achromatic lines of a parking spot.

Plus, dense trucks lend to nan deterioration and tear of roads and bridges. The mean pickup is 5,000 to 7,000 pounds, whereas nan mean car is conscionable 4,300 pounds, according to nan EPA. 

'We are conscionable successful emotion pinch these monster vehicles, and I emotion them, too, but it’s a awesome rumor pinch weight,' Farley said.

Despite nan myriad problems pinch SUVs and trucks, location is nary denotation that request is slowing down moreover a small bit.

SUVs are perceived arsenic safer than sedans, pinch plenty of studies to backmost that up. Plus, galore drivers for illustration nan greater retention abstraction they spend on pinch nan higher position of nan road.

And nan numbers don't lie: pickup trucks and SUVs are 4 of nan 5 best-selling vehicles successful nan US.