Car evolution analysis

Study: car evolution trends

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Cars grow over years, as technology advance and more gadgets should be included under body, but in Europe since 1990s, the cars are growing crazy with about 10-20 cm per model change, which is exaggerate, based on technology evolution, 5 mm per year is enough. This non-natural grow causes companies to abandon large models and introduce new smaller models below existing models.

Car classification in Europe is not officially regulated, instead it is defined in relative size with other cars. Some brands do not follow the common class sizes, making cars with intermediate sizes, these are usually considered being part of the smaller class, causing further increase in size of car classes. Seems that all European companies wants to make a car bigger than competitor’s cars of same class.

Smallest cars

I am concerned about car dimensions that grow over years, getting too big for our garages, I was always fascinated by small and basic cars, can such cars be produced in today world? This article shows the smallest cars with 4 seats.

Biggest cars

If you are an architect and designing parking garages you may ask how big are the biggest cars. Biggest mass-produced cars are today in 5.1-5.3 meters range, such as Audi A8, BMW 7-Series, Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS, Mercedes S-Class. However, there are few even bigger cars produced in low numbers, some over 6 meters long, they are listed in this article.

Evolution of American cars 1990-2023

I analyzed how American cars evolved over past 30 years. The average engine size rose from 3.33 L in 1990 to 4.09 L in 2007 then dropped to 3.42 L in 2022 due to introduction of turbochargers that allowed downsizing engines, meantime horsepower rose from 142 HP in 1990 to 313 HP in 2022. In 2022 domestic cars averaged 336 HP vs imported cars 295 HP. US manufacturers discontinued many car models in 2020 to focus on SUV, causing a sharp increase in average height and weight and a sharp decrease in MPG.

Evolution of European cars 1970-2023

I copied all cars specifications into Excel and used AVERAGEIFS formulas to analyze how cars sold in Germany evolved over past 50 years (this analysis apply for whole Europe, 99% of cars sold in Europe are also sold in Germany). You can buy Excel database: German Car Database.

Evolution of cars sold in United Kingdom 1980-2020

After I copied all cars specifications from Parkers.co.uk into Excel format, I analyzed it to show you how cars sold in United Kingdom evolved over past 40 years. I calculated using AVERAGEIFS formulas. Charts made at 16 September 2019 update with 83430 model versions. You can buy Excel database: UK Car Database.

Evolution of Japanese cars 1988-2022

I copied all cars specifications from a popular Japan website into Excel format and used AVERAGEIFS formulas to analyze how cars sold in Japan domestic market evolved over last 30 years. You can buy Excel database: Japan Car Database.