Have we reached peak SUV? The Toyota Corolla Cross, Mazda CX-60, Kia Seltos and more are creating a crowded market | Opinion

Saying ‘SUVs are popular’ is not exactly headline news. They are the most popular segment of the market and have been for several years now, and continue to grow as more and more models arrive.

The SUV market is more diverse than it has ever been and there’s no sign of it slowing down. In 2022 alone we’ll have new models from Audi, BMW, Citroen, Ford, Kia, Lexus, Mazda, Nissan, Skoda, Toyota and Volkswagen - to name a few.

Which raises some pertinent questions - are we getting too many? Can you have too much of a good thing? And will some brands go too far and offer too much choice?

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Take Toyota, for example, who is the market-leader for a reason, the company understands what consumers want and fills that need. While it has long had the likes of the RAV4, Prado and LandCruiser, it was slow to react to the more recent preference for compact, car-like SUVs.

Toyota has since corrected this situation by adding the C-HR, Yaris Cross and soon the Corolla Cross, which will all sit beneath the RAV4. This will give Toyota four models, and likely somewhere in the region of 30 model variants, in a price band between roughly $27,000 for the cheapest Yaris Cross up to approximately $53k for the most expensive RAV4 option. That’s just a $25,000 price band to squeeze in 30 (or possibly more, we’re working on the assumption the Corolla Cross will have just six variants and it could be less or, more likely, more). 

Mazda is in a similar situation across its entire range, with the Japanese brand already offering the CX-3, CX-30, MX-30, CX-5, CX-8 and CX-9, with the CX-60 coming soon and the all-new CX-80 and CX-90 both under consideration. That’s potentially nine SUVs for a brand that just five years ago (2016) had only three.

Of course, it has been a case of ‘so far, so good’ for most brands that have committed heavily to an SUV line-up; which, at this point, is most brands.

There are some particularly good examples though, beyond the already mentioned Toyota and Mazda. Kia stands out, with it introducing several all-new SUV models in recent years (Seltos, Stonic and Niro) and seeing a subsequent sales boost.

And there’s no end in sight either, with the electric revolution already leading to more SUV models headed our way. Kia already has the e-Niro and EV6, Mazda the MX-30, Hyundai the Ioniq 5 and on the horizon comes the Toyota bZ4x, Subaru Solterra, Polestar 3 and BMW iX1 (to name just a few).

On the one hand this crowded market creates excellent choice for customers, with something to seemingly fit every price and style. However, one of the reasons car companies love SUVs so much is because they generally carry a price premium over an equivalent-sized passenger car.

For example, the entry-level Toyota Yaris Cross starts at $26,990 before on-road costs, while the equivalent Yaris hatch is priced from $23,740.

And while our choice of SUVs increase, the amount of non-SUV models looks set to diminish. We’ve already seen Hyundai, once a stalwart for small cars, ditch the likes of the Accent and i20 in favour of the more expensive Venue and Kona. So, once choices like the Yaris, Mazda2 and Kia Rio are inevitably phased out due to declining demand - although there’s no exact timetable for when that will happen - we will be left with plenty of SUVs but we’ll need to pay a premium for them.

Of course the answer to the key question, ‘have we reached peak SUV?’ is easy to answer - no. Not by a long-shot, expect even more SUVs and SUV-based variations to continue for the foreseeable future.