I would guess GP was talking about safety, not trying to promote oversized cars.

To be fair, smaller cars are safer.

Depends on what you mean by safer. If you are hitting an F-150 you will be safer in a F-150 yourself than a smartcar. If you are a pedestrian you would rather be hit by a smartcar.

Many of these Chinese vehicles have the safety features of a 1950's era vehicle, so without airbags, good construction techniques for absorbing force, etc. I imagine they would all get horrible safety ratings by Consumer Reports.

A lot of Chinese golf carts would not pass US or EU crash test standards.

That's a fair point.

However, if energy scarcity pushes us globally toward a situation where we need more essential cars for slower, shorter routes, then it would make sense to downgrade a bit those tests, as the typical use would be closer to a Topolino driving 70km/h on a country road than an M8 dashing at 170km/h on the highway.

The F-150 has gone EV for 2023 https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/

It's still a huge heavy vehicle that is everything but aerodynamic. Having it as the average Joe's car is aberrant.

The electric F-150 is a niche vehicle and Ford is only pretending it is for the mass market. Their massive Tennessee factory, currently under construction, will be producing their mass market truck:

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2023...

It'll still weigh well over 2 tons, if not 3.

You’re are wrong it is not the F150 it is that F series which includes all the work truck models like 250, 350, fleet vehicles etc.

Technically you're right, practically #2 and #3 are the Ram and the Silverado, so it does not really change my argument.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g39628015/best-selling-car...