Automotive EE here. This has been a trend, but the largest jump was every new body since 2009. In order to meet the practically impossible CAFE and emissions

Automotive EE here. This has been a trend, but the largest jump was every new body since 2009. In order to meet the practically impossible CAFE and emissions standards pushed for completely for PR by the Obama Admin, a silent change was made to how vehicles are judged and tallied in the CAFE specifically, but also CARB (CA only) and NHTSA (not emissions, but related to size increases). Footprint became a consideration to emissions. Larger footprint vehicles are judged differently than smaller footprint. You might be thinking, that makes no sense, and you would be right. Of course this incentivized making larger vehicles. I don’t know the reasoning behind it other than Admin wanted a win for PR, Congress didn’t know any better, automakers got an out and got room to add garbage no one asked for. I know this is the reason vehicles got larger, suddenly in every single body made since 2009. Obama came in and said we’re going to forgive you a little on footprint, automakers delivered footprint. EDIT: for the people that can’t stand to hear something bad about politician they voted for… Despite every vehicle getting larger, the CAFE averages have still gone up. StartStop, DEF, multiple displacement, private bussed “smart” O2 sensors, heated differentials (sounds silly, I know), selectable lock Tcase, front axle disconnect, adjustable ride height, aluminum bodies, selectable air intakes, higher pressure injectors, more aerodynamic bodies, etc etc. While we haven’t improved upon the best stoichiometric ratio of air and petrol, we have improved all aspect of ICE vehicles… they’re just larger.