Top Ten Charts: September Edition ??

September’s wrapped, summer’s behind us, and while Oktoberfest is still in full swing (greetings from Munich!), the Travel and Mobility Tech world never slows down.

Here are the data charts that caught my eye over the past four weeks.??

Charts #1 & 2: The SUV Dilemma ??

The first chart reveals a sobering truth uncovered by The Economist, which analyzed millions of car crashes in the United States between 2013 and 2023.

The findings??

In collisions between two vehicles, the heavier car usually prevails.?

• The data shows that the heavier your car (see grey line), the lower your own fatality rate.?
• However, the bigger the vehicle you drive, the higher the chance of causing death to passengers in the smaller car (see red line).

In short, owning a heavier vehicle like an SUV is in your personal interest for safety, but it’s NOT in society’s best interest, as overall death rates increase dramatically with vehicle weight.

Given this, you might think automakers would pump the brakes on producing increasingly heavier SUVs and pickups.?

But the opposite is happening.

Official figures from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that the average new car in America now weighs more than 4,400 pounds.?

And the share of vehicles weighing more than 5,000 pounds? It jumped to 31% in 2023, up from just 22% five years ago.

It would be easy to blame consumers for this trend, but as The Economist rightfully points out, Americans face what feels like a cold-war-style “arms race” in the car market.

As the vehicle fleet around you gets heavier, people feel the rational need to protect themselves by buying a bigger, heavier car as well.

Chart #3: China’s Electric Mobility Revolution ?

Leaving the dilemma around SUVs in the rearview mirror, let’s shift gears to electric mobility.

Despite softening demand for EVs in Europe and North America, China—the world’s largest auto market—is hitting a major milestone, according to Reuters.

• Just four years ago, electric vehicle sales in China were practically nonexistent—a rounding error, if you will.?
• Fast-forward to today and pure electric and plug-in hybrids now account for more than half of all passenger vehicle sales.

In simple terms: electric cars in China are now the norm, not the exception.

Charts #4 & 5: The Revival of Plug-in Hybrids ??

Interestingly, the recent jump in electric vehicle sales in China (and elsewhere) isn't exclusively driven by fully electric cars.?

Instead, plug-in hybrids, also called PHEVs, are actually growing even faster than their fully electric counterparts, as Bloomberg data reveals.

This trend is particularly noteworthy because plug-in hybrids were once considered "the worst of both worlds," as Nat Bullard rightly put it.?

• In the past, many automakers used PHEVs as a compliance tool—a cheap way to improve the average emissions of their vehicle fleets without fully committing to going electric.?
• Early PHEV models were often equipped with low-range electric modes, essentially justifying their "electric" label without delivering any real impact.

However, things are changing.

In recent years, companies like Li Auto and BYD have been launching more capable, longer-range PHEVs, which are gaining traction with new buyers.?

According to BNEF analysis, the average electric range of PHEVs has jumped from 50 kilometers in 2019 to nearly 80 kilometers in 2023—and it's expected to rise even further this year.

So, most of this growth can be attributed to China (again), where average PHEV battery pack sizes are increasing much faster than in Europe or the US; see this chart right here.

Chart #6: Trouble Ahead for Europe's Auto Industry ????

Where there are winners—like Chinese EV manufacturers and consumers—there are usually also losers.?

Unfortunately, the European automotive market seems to be on the losing side, stuck in past thinking and slow to adapt to the electric car era.

Currently, a staggering one-third of European auto factories are operating at half capacity or less.?

This includes major brands like BMW, Mercedes, Renault, Stellantis, and Volkswagen.

It’s not looking good for the European automotive industry (and our economy) in the coming years.

For context, the auto industry in Europe accounts for over 7% of the EU's GDP and supports more than 13 million jobs.

Chart #7 & 8: Europe’s Role as the World’s Tourist Hub ??

Speaking of Europe’s future economic role, one sector with a far more optimistic outlook than the automotive industry is travel and tourism.

In fact, 8 out of the 10 most visited destinations, measured by international traveler arrivals, are located in Europe.

Sarcastically speaking, Europe seems to be turning into the world’s theme park and open-air museum, particularly for American and Chinese tourists.

But is this necessarily a bad thing?

Not really.?

One major upside: tourists spend money, injecting cash into the local economy, while making little use of taxpayer-funded services like healthcare and pensions.

That said, there’s a price to pay for local residents, especially in over-visited tourist hotspots like Barcelona, Majorca, and Paris, where the impacts of overtourism have led to protests in the streets.

But this might be a trade-off worth accepting.?

With economic growth largely a thing of Europe’s past (see chart below), tourism might just be the lifeline holding up the continent.

Take away tourism, and much of Europe could face a significant economic decline.

PS: For comparison, the trend line for the U.S. and China looks much better; see this Fortuna analysis here.

Chart #9: In-Flight Internet at New Heights ??

Enough whining about Europe’s economic future—let’s dive into some cool data from the world of aviation!

One of the most notable announcements in the airline industry last month was United Airlines ’ commitment to offering passengers high-speed internet during flights.

Why is this such a big deal?

Well, despite over 20 years of widespread internet adoption, in-flight Wi-Fi has remained largely underwhelming—limited to checking emails, with poor latency often making anything more extremely frustrating.

United’s solution?

A partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink to bring truly high-speed internet to the skies.

For context, SpaceX has been launching thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit at an astonishing pace to provide satellite-based broadband connectivity.?

The company now operates nearly two-thirds of all satellites in space, enabling a new era of connectivity, even at 35,000 feet.

Chart #10: Softening Aviation’s Emissions ??

Before we wrap up, I can’t let you go without touching on one of my favorite topics—sustainability in aviation.

As you might remember, I’ve been deeply involved in this space, particularly through my work with the Sustainable Aero Lab , where we recently launched airline-ranking.com.

One chart I stumbled upon in this context last month comes from Roland Berger and highlights some “off-the-shelf” opportunities to cut emissions.

What surprised me the most??

Taxiing—the movement of an aircraft on the ground before takeoff or after landing—can account for a staggering 25% of an airport’s total emissions.

Introducing electric taxibots and ground equipment to push aircraft to the runway could be a low-hanging fruit in reducing on-ground emissions, at least on airport premises.

And that wraps up this September edition of OneChart!

Thanks for sticking with me.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, or data chart recommendations—whether it’s about EVs, aviation’s sustainability struggles, or anything else we covered today.

Until next time. ??