CARVERSAL

Recently over the past few years, the demand for 4x4 Utilitarian SUVs has been skyrocketing, resulting in a 2-year waiting period for the Land Rover Defender, 1 Year waiting period for the Mahindra Thar, and 2 months for the Jimny also ( if anyone cares )

For this, let’s go back to the 1930s before World War 2 when the term Sport Utility Version did not even exist in the car industry, the majority of vehicles were just rear wheel drives ones, and some utilitarian Vehicles were built with different bodies and wheels on the same platforms to perform more utilitarian tasks like the Chevy Suburban.

4X4 Drivetrains existed but were only used by the military as making a 4x4 vehicle required a differential and a transfer case. Still, as they were produced in such low quantities, their cost was extraordinarily high, creating a 4x4 version of the exact vehicle cost double compared to the 4x2 version.

 

But with the start of WW2 and the adoption of Wills Jeep by the US Military, the Demand for 4x4 parts skyrocketed, incentivizing car makers to produce them in high quality for the army, which led to Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge to join hands and have these 4x4 parts resulting in a 100 fold increase in their production and reduction in their cost which lead to the start of their use in standard passenger vehicles for the ordinary civilians.

 

But as the war ended, many countries took inspiration from the Willis Jeep for making their own 4x4 vehicle, like Japan made their Land Cruiser, Britain made their Land Rover, and America made their Harvester Scout. More and more cars started getting 4x4 as an option, but till the 1960s, there was no use of SUVs as a vehicle term. But this changed when in 1966, Ford launched a new generation of their Bronco and named its 2-door version the Sports Utility Version, at this time, this sports utility version did not mean the actual SUV Definition. We use it today, but it was just meant to signify the 3 door version of the Bronco.

But all of this changed in 1974 when Jeep launched their Cherokee SUV and named it a sports utility vehicle in their brochure, this was the First time a Vehicle was categorized as a sports utility version.

After this, several vehicles came under the SUV tag with different styles and USPs. Like the Range Rover was an SUV that offered Great luxury, Ford Bronco was a great 4x4 lifestyle vehicle, and the Lada was an affordable 4x4 alternative.

 As of 2000, more than 76 Million SUVs were sold worldwide, and brands were emphasizing more and more customers to buy their SUVs as selling an SUV was almost 10 times more profitable as compared to selling a regular sedan or hatchback because of the premium the brands can charge for their SUVs and in some cases the brands even sold their standard cars at losses so they can upsell those customers later to buy their SUVs. Some carmakers stopped producing regular cars and shifted their production to SUVs to make extra dollars.

But recently, over the last few years, especially after 2020, the Demand for the 4x4 Off-road oriented utilitarian SUVs has skyrocketed beyond any previous levels, as the Defender. It has a 1 year waiting period, Mahindra Thar has a 10-month waiting period, and the G-wagon, the Ultimate Off-roader. It has a 2-year waiting period, and there are 2 main reasons.

Aspirational Value

The first reason is Aspirational Value, as there was a time in the 1970-the 1990s when the most remarkable thing in cars was their performance, everyone cared about how fast their car was, its 0-100 time, its top speed, and driving feel as during this time a car was judged on how its performed on the road, no other aspect mattered much.

Then in the late 1990s, the new cool things in cars were their features, people now started caring about how big the touchscreen in their car was, how much their seats could recline, and how giant the sunroof was, which led to all carmakers starting to manufacture luxury vehicles for their customers.

 

But over the past few years, the new cool thing in cars is their off-roading capabilities, now people care about the water-wading capacity in their SUV, their approach and departure angle, and towing capacity, now people don’t care about how fast their vehicle reaches the destination, but what destinations they can reach with their car. But all of this has happened because of the feeling of Freedom people want.

Freedom

 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people were restricted in everything, they were not allowed to leave their homes, were not allowed to do most things, and were restricted from fundamental freedoms, so people started resonating with the idea of going out freely, exploring new terrains and going out on new adventures,

 

People started to appreciate nature more and more and to explore nature, they need a 4x4 SUV with good Off-roading capabilities, but all of this is happening when 98% of the SUV owners take their SUV on first just once a year, and 91% of owners don’t ever off-road with their SUVs, so even though people buy them with the idea of freedom, they never utilize these vehicles for the proper purpose.