If it's suitable for sedans it's actually more suitable for SUVs. SUVs require less power per cubic feet of space. So there is more space available for them, even if they take more energy overall

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vincnetas 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

such strange unit of measurement. cubic feet of space. especially for civilian transport when most of the time no one uses that space. i mean most of the time its one person per car without any baggage. what's important is weight of the car. and i bet suv is heavier than sedans.

	▲	bluGill 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There are multiple variables, claiming weight is important is wrong. Volume is important because the more volume the more space there is for batteries. Aerodynamics is important because at common highway speeds this is the dominate energy cost. This is a factor that goes up by the square of speed, so at low speeds it doesn't matter but at high speeds it does. Weight is least important because it has a linear change and is a small factor in efficiency. There are real safety concerns with SUVs, but their larger size means there is more space for batteries and so they can overall go farther then a Sedan in normal driving despite the other costs.

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thebruce87m 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are variants of the Model Y with LFP batteries.

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dzhiurgis 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've tried to express SUV's as in American SUVs - full sized 7 seat monstrosity. Most EV SUVs right now are crossovers, i.e. Model Y. Cybertruck is closest approximation and it uses nearly 2x more power than Model Y. Even with ~most advanced batteries people still think Cybertruck's range is way too little whereas I'm pretty certain majority of Model Y's sold are LFPs.

	▲	silon42 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		For me in Europe the Y is a huge monstrosity... I'd want something about 16 inches shorter to get to normal crossover size.

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pottertheotter 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What? How does an SUV require less power per cf than a sedan? I would think that aero alone would always be worse for an SUV, making sedans more efficient.

	▲	AngryData 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think he means less power per total overall volume of the vehicle. SUVs are certainly less efficient per mile, but their power requirements don't scale linearly with volume so you have a lot more "extra" room to place batteries, even if it is still entirely within the frame. So you can get away with less space efficient batteries.
	▲	murderfs 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Drag scales by frontal area (and the coefficient of drag tends to actually be lower on longer objects), so as long as the SUV is longer than a sedan, it'll tend to have less aerodynamic drag proportionally (rolling resistance scales with weight, though, so you still have to pay that cost).
	▲	Gibbon1 10 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		An observation is the amount of power needed is proportional to some log of size and weight.