They don't belong here. They are too big and too polluting, says a German environmental group about pickup trucks from the US on German roads.
A German environmental group calling itself Environmental Action Germany (DUH) has chosen to sue the German authorities because large pickup trucks from the United States are in the country.
Specifically, DUH believes that the German response to the Danish Road Traffic Authority (KBA) has incorrectly allowed the import of the cars.
But DUH hopes that the lawsuit will force the German authorities to provide the documentation on which the imported cars are approved.
This is what Carscoops writes.
DUH is angry that, according to the environmental group, the cars emit nine times as much CO2 as other cars in the EU, and that American cars are often not equipped with the safety systems that are otherwise mandatory within the EU.
Each of the American imported cars is approved individually. And DUH finds it worrying that 80 percent of the approvals come from the German authorities.
DUH refers to figures from 2023, where 4,025 American pickups from brands such as Dodge, Chevrolet and Ford came to Europe.
According to the German environmental group, they have previously asked the authorities in Germany to provide the basis on which the cars were approved. But the authorities have reportedly refused.
– You accept major damage to the environment and an increased risk of serious traffic accidents by approving those cars, says DUH director Jürgen Resch.
In addition to filing a lawsuit against the authorities, the director wants Germany to impose a fire tax on vehicles and introduce parking restrictions, making it unattractive to own such cars in Germany.
Pickup trucks are among the most popular vehicles in the United States and have dominated sales statistics for decades.
According to Edmunds.com, the Ford F-Series pickup truck is by far the most popular new car in most states. But the Toyota RAV4 is actually selling even better. Data from Jato Dynamics shows that the Japanese sold 475,000 RAV4 models to Americans in 2024.
Tesla has also tried to get a piece of the huge market with the quirky Cybertruck. However, the car is selling nowhere near the 250,000 units per year that CEO Elon Musk had hoped for. Read more about it here .
Ford is also having a hard time with electric pickups. The F-150 Lightning, the Americans' first attempt at such a thing, is selling so poorly that production had to be cut back as early as April 2024.
