1930s to 1948 Just before and during
World War II, prototypes and low-volume production examples of military cars with sedan or station wagon-type bodies and rugged, off-road capable four-wheel drive chassis began to appear around the world. These early models included the 1936
Kurogane Type 95 from Japan, the 1938
GAZ-61 from Russia as well as the 1941
Volkswagen Kommandeurswagen and 1936
Opel Geländesportwagen from Germany. An early predecessor to the design of modern SUVs was the 1940
Humber Heavy Utility, a four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle built on the chassis of the
Humber Super Snipe passenger car. The most prohibitive initial factors to the potential civilian popularity of an SUV-like car were their cost and the availability of certain critical parts. Before the war, adding four-wheel drive to a car almost doubled its cost. Compared to a common, rear-wheel drive vehicle, any 4WD (four-wheel drive) needed many essential extra components, including a
transfer case, a second differential, and
constant-velocity joints for the driven front axle—which were expensive due to the precision involved in this required manufacturing gears and other specialized parts. Before World WarII, these were produced in the United States by only a few specialized firms with limited production capacity. Due to the increase in demand for parts for the war effort, in early 1942
Ford,
Dodge, and
Chevrolet joined in fabricating these parts in mass quantities, boosting their production more than 100-fold. An early usage of the term was the 1947
Crosley CC Four Sport Utility model, which used a convertible wagon body style and is therefore unrelated to the design of later SUVs.
1949 to 1970s Several models of
carryall wagons began to be offered with four-wheel drive, beginning in 1949 when the
Willys Jeep Station Wagon introduced the option of four-wheel drive. Four-wheel-drive versions of the
Chevrolet Suburban were introduced for 1955, followed by the
International Harvester Travelall in 1956 (credited as being the first full-size SUV) Developed as a competitor to the
Jeep CJ, the compact
International Scout was introduced in 1961, offering either two- or four-wheel drive and a variety of engine options. The Harvester Scout provided many other options designed to appeal to a wide range of customers for numerous uses as well. The 1963
Jeep Wagoneer (SJ) introduced a sophisticated station wagon body design that was more carlike than any other four-wheel-drive vehicle on the market. The 1967
Toyota Land Cruiser FJ55 station wagon was the first comfort-oriented version of the Land Cruiser off-road vehicle. The two-door
Chevrolet K5 Blazer (and related GMC K5 Jimmy) were introduced for 1969, and the two-door
International Scout II was introduced in 1971. The first European luxury off-road vehicle was the 1970
Range Rover Classic, which was marketed as a
luxury car for both on-road and off-road usage. In 1972
Subaru Leone 4WD wagon was introduced in Japan, which was not designed as an off-road vehicle, but a version of the front-wheel-drive passenger car. Some argue that this was the first SUV. It was also classified as a commercial vehicle in the home market, just like later SUVs. The first relevant usage of the term SUV was in advertising brochures for the full-sized 1974
Jeep Cherokee (SJ), which used the wording "sport(s) utility vehicle" as a description for the vehicle. The 1966
Ford Bronco included a "sport utility" model; however, in this case it was used for the two-door pickup truck version. The VAZ-2121 (now designated Lada Niva Legend) was the first mass-market 4WD unibody car in some markets in 1977. The
AMC Eagle introduced in the North American market in 1979, and is often called the first mass-market "
crossover", although that term had not been coined at the time. In contrast to truck or utility-vehicle based designs and the Niva that was purpose-built for rural areas,
American Motors Corporation (AMC) utilized a long-serving existing car platform and designed a new automatic full-time AWD system. It was first with "SUV styling on a raised passenger-car platform combined with AWD."
1980s to 1990s The compact-sized 1984
Jeep Cherokee (XJ) is often credited as the first SUV in the modern understanding of the term. The use of unibody construction was unique at the time for a four-wheel drive and also reduced the weight of the new Cherokee. It also appealed to urban families due to having a more compact size (compared to the full-size Wagoneer and previous generation Cherokee SJ models) as well as a plush interior resembling a station wagon. As the new Cherokee became a major sales success, the term "sport utility vehicle" began to be used in the national press for the first time. "The advent and immediate success of AMC/Jeep's compact four-door Cherokee turned the truck industry upside down." The U.S.
corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard was introduced in 1975 to reduce fuel usage, but included relaxed regulations for "light trucks" to avoid businesses paying extra taxes for work vehicles. This created a loophole that manufacturers increasingly exploited since the
1980s oil glut (which started an era of cheap gasoline), whereby SUVs were designed to be classified as light trucks despite their primary use as passenger vehicles to receive tax concessions and less stringent fuel economy requirements. This enabled manufacturers to sell more profitable, larger, more polluting vehicles, instead of the smaller, less polluting, less profitable cars, that the CAFE regulations intended. For example, the
United States Environmental Protection Agency agreed to classify the new Jeep Cherokee as a light truck following lobbying from its manufacturer; the Cherokee was then marketed by the company as a passenger vehicle. This increased the SUV boom as other manufacturers introduced their own SUVs in response to the compact Cherokee taking sales from their regular cars. In 1994 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began classifying vehicles by "market class". For SUVs in 1994 they included three Jeep models, the Cherokee, Grand Cherokee and Wrangler. Two Ford models were the Bronco and the Explorer. Six General Motors models including the GMC Jimmy, the Yukon, and the Suburban 1500; the Chevrolet Suburban 1500, and the Blazer (1500 and S10); the Geo Tracker (Convertible or Van); and finally the Oldsmobile Bravada. Eleven Japanese models classified as SUVs were the Toyota 4Runner and Land Cruiser; the Honda Passport; the Nissan Pathfinder; the Mazda Navajo; the Mitsubishi Montero; the Isuzu Amigo, Rodeo, and Trooper; and the Suzuki Samurai and Sidekick. From Europe the three Land Rover models, the Range Rover, the Defender and the Discovery were classified as SUVs. By late 1996
Consumers Digest magazine was calling the trend an "SUV craze", and by 1999 the U.S. sales of SUVs and light trucks for the first time exceeded sales of regular passenger cars.
2000s By 2003, there were 76 million SUVs and light trucks on U.S. roads, representing approximately 35% of the vehicles on the road. As a result, several manufacturing plants were converted from car production to SUV production (such as the General Motors plant in
Arlington, Texas in 1996), and many long-running U.S. sedan models were discontinued. From the mid-2000s until 2010, U.S. sales of SUVs and other light trucks experienced a dip due to
increasing fuel prices and then
a declining economy. From 2008 until 2010, General Motors closed four assembly plants that were producing SUVs and trucks. Sales of SUVs and light trucks sales began to recover in 2010, as fuel prices decreased and the North American economy improved.
2010s to 2020s In 2019, the
International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that the global number of SUVs and crossovers on the road multiplied by six since 2010—from 35 million to 200 million vehicles, and their market share has grown to 40 percent of worldwide new light-vehicle sales at the end of the decade. By 2013, small and compact SUVs had increased to become the third-largest market segment. In 2015, global sales of SUVs overtook the "lower medium car" segment, to become the largest market segment, accounting for 22.9% of "light vehicle" sales in 2015. The SUV segment further grew to 26% of the global passenger car market in 2016, then to 36.8% of the market in Q1–Q3 of 2017. Manufacturers continued to phase out the production of sedan models, replacing them with new models of SUVs.
Luxury brands have increasingly introduced SUV or crossover models in the 2010s. For example:
Rolls-Royce Cullinan,
Bentley Bentayga,
Aston Martin DBX,
Maserati Levante,
Lamborghini Urus, and
Ferrari Purosangue. In 2019 SUVs made up 47.4% of U.S. sales compared to only 22.1% for sedans. == Motorsport ==