By sales, SUVs have surpassed sedans, wagons, hatchbacks, and minivans, and last year they also accounted for 53% of battery-electric vehicle sales and 83% of plug-in hybrid sales. Conventional car body styles still accounted for 43.4% of EV sales, but just 10% of plug-in hybrid sales.

SUVs are generally heavier and less aerodynamic than cars, which impacts efficiency of internal-combustion and electric powertrains alike. That’s led to differing analyses of the relatively high number of plug-in SUV sales.

The DOE has a fairly positive outlook, saying in September that a small electric SUV with 300 miles of range is estimated to have half the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of a comparable gasoline vehicle. In 2021 it said that popular small SUVs were a meaningfully better choice than larger models in terms of overall emissions—and that EVs and plug-in hybrids were better still.