The evolution of the urban SUV

Most people associate SUVs as a modern phenomenon, a 21st Century trend born out of a burgeoning middle class with more disposable income but dramatically less leisure time because of our always-on, constantly-connected 24/7 lives.

They’re more than mere transportation. If we can pretend we live an adventurous and carefree lifestyle, even to just help us get through the boredom of the everyday commute, then why not buy into the fantasy?

Cocooned up high in your own little escape-mobile, the SUV’s psychological appeal, the sheer mental getaway it offers, is actually pretty profound when you stop to think about it.

The thing is, though, the first cars of a century ago were exactly that as well – a break away from the horse and cart, opening up the entire world and its endless possibilities.

Like SUVs, landmark models like the Ford Model T were high-riding and rugged because they were essentially motorised carriages minus the horse, built to clear rutted and potholed tracks and bushland, as sealed roads were few and far between. They were the original crossovers!

Of course, as the road network flourished, cars became lower, and so evolved as lighter and less indestructible monocoque-bodied sedans, coupes, wagons and convertibles. If people needed tough go-anywhere vehicles, their choices were limited to 4x4s like the Land Rover, Jeep and Nissan Patrol. There was clear demarcation.

Then the Suzuki Vitara happened. Earlier attempts like the Matra-Simca Rancho of the 1970s (in Europe) tried but failed to meld a compact and affordable leisure car from commercial-vehicle applications, inspired by the earlier Suzuki Jimny/Sierra, but the former was too offbeat and the latter too off-road focused. 

The Matra-Simca Rancho tried, but failed to meld a compact and affordable leisure car from commercial-vehicle applications.

The Vitara, however, heralded a new dawn. Yes, it had a ladder-frame chassis, but it was also a smart, modern wagon with refinement and class, promising comfort, security, economy and ease.

The urban SUV was born and the world went gaga for it.

The Vitara heralded a new dawn.

Inspired by the Suzuki's success, Toyota went one further, cobbling together a similarly sized and proportioned high-riding car-like monocoque body, using Corolla, Carina/Camry and even Celica bits underneath.

If the Vitara kicked down the SUV door, that first RAV4 ripped the roof open. Almost every carmaker has since applied the same formula to its passenger cars, creating new segments across the price spectrum in the process. Nothing was the same again.

After the first RAV4 nothing was the same again.

Such history is essential in understanding how and why urban SUVs have evolved their own design forms, from boxy and utilitarian down-scaled clones of larger and 4x4s – remember when RAV4s and Honda CR-Vs carried their spare wheels behind bulky side-hinged tailgates? – to raised hatch-cum-wagon crossovers with a total urban focus. Form over function became key.

The first Nissan Qashqai of 2006 – known as the Dualis in Australia and Japan – was another breakthrough. Slightly smaller than a RAV4 and yet priced only a bit above something like a mid-range Toyota Corolla, it struck gold globally by anticipating consumers’ attraction to SUVs while addressing their concerns of excess size, cost, consumption and effort when driving and parking in more confined spaces. People began to abandon small and medium-sized cars in droves for this sort of SUV.

Then lightning struck twice for Nissan with the Juke.

The first Nissan Qashqai was known as the Dualis in Australia.

A bolt from the blue when unveiled in 2010, it looked more like an alien motor-show concept than a high-volume production SUV, with muscular hips, bulging eyes for headlights and a coupe-like hunched-back silhouette all melted within a hotpot of in-your-face attitude. You could even see a clear family resemblance to the Nissan 370Z sports car... in an SUV! Like BMW’s Mini, but jacked up, the Juke was aimed at city slickers and urbanites seeking to make a statement.

Sales went stratospheric, especially among the younger demographic who would otherwise not be seen dead driving an SUV, sending rival manufacturers scurrying back to their styling studios in retaliation.

Yes, the Juke’s divisive design seemed to have deliberately come at the cost of effective rear-seat packaging, a decently-sized boot and unimpeded vision when parking, but at least it wasn’t a boring wallflower facsimile of every small boxy hatch out there. It was the miniskirt of mini crossovers, banishing the boring box-on-wheels approach as adhered to by the likes of other smaller SUVs of the time, like the Hyundai ix35.    

Crucially, Nissan’s masterstroke was to make the Juke’s interior as bold as its outer skin, with vibrant trim, a (for the era) large central screen and dash layout reminiscent of ghetto-blasters of the 1980s. It rode the wave of multimedia connectivity as an extension of your smartphone’s functionality, prioritising communication and audio accessibility. Never mind the cramped space, firm suspension and noisy ride – the anti-establishment Juke was literally another form of boombox.

Ultimately, what the smallest Nissan SUV helped do was create a design and lifestyle-driven alternative to small hatchbacks and sedans, even if the 2010-2019 first-generation series was a little extreme in looks and packaging. Affordability. Easy access. High seating. Ample ground clearance. A sense of adventure.

The world has since been flooded with imitators.

Mazda’s response was barely any larger or practical, but the CX-3 is in no way as visually confronting; now it’s Australia’s best-selling small SUV.

Honda, which beat the Juke to market by a dozen years with the 1998 HR-V (but dropped the ball with bizarrely hearse-on-stilts-like styling) infused visual elements of  its '80s Prelude and Integra coupe classics for the far-more successful 2015 HR-V follow-up.

And others, such as the Hyundai Kona, Citroen C3 AirCross, Renault Captur, Peugeot 2008, Ford Puma, Toyota Yaris Cross, Volkswagen T-Cross and Skoda Kamiq, also all owe a debt to the breakout Juke.

Ironically, these have helped the 2020 Juke II evolve into a larger, more refined and more comfortable urban SUV proposition.  

Finally, while Australia still lags behind, electrification is fast becoming the norm in Europe, Japan, Korea, China and North America, with urban SUVs well placed to make the most of the changing world.

How? Basically they're built tall, meaning battery packs can be incorporated within the vehicle’s platform without compromising headroom or boot capacity, while also providing a lower centre of gravity for more secure control at speed. Similarly, electric motors can drive each axle as required for lightweight all-wheel drive, as seen in 2020’s runaway success story of 2020 – the RAV4 Hybrid.

The Toyota's unprecedented popularity clearly demonstrates that consumers are ready for electrification, as they address usual SUV shortfalls such as high fuel consumption and top-heavy handling. Ford offers a Puma hybrid overseas, the next Qashqai and future Juke variants will likely adopt the conceptually similar e-Power systems, and both the coming Yaris Cross and 2022 Corolla Cross will mirror their RAV4 big-brother with petrol-electric availability.     

The evolution of the small SUV continues unbridled. Watch this space for what happens next.