Bigger SUVs, broken roads: The cost of India’s auto upgrade

• ET Bureau

• Updated On Feb 19, 2026 at 03:04 PM IST

Potholes are an indictment of poor civic maintenance and product of corruption.

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Over the last few decades, aspirational consumption has reshaped India’s auto market. Vehicle ownership is rising steadily. But this growth narrative can’t obscure a set of figures presented in Parliament recently: pothole-related fatalities have increased by 53 per cent in 5 yrs, claiming 9,438 lives between 2020 and 2024. That is not just a statistic but systemic failure.

Potholes are an indictment of poor civic maintenance and product of corruption. There’s also a deeper structural shift. Buyers are upgrading from hatchbacks to compact and mid-size SUVs. Automakers are prioritising heavier, features-laden cars, changing India’s vehicle fleet: more mass per axle, more stress per km. And our public infra is still largely thinking ‘Maruti’ and ‘Bajaj’. In 2010, the average hatchback weighed under 1 t. Today’s compact SUVs are 300-400 kg heavier. So, crash barriers built for low-impact sedans splinter under heavier vehicles. Dividers and guard rails fail at forces not earlier anticipated. Five-star car ratings may protect occupants. But safety cannot be outsourced to automakers alone. It is a system’s obligation – roads, footpaths, barriers, walkways, drainage, enforcement and pedestrian norms must evolve together.

When private consumption decisions create public costs, policy must recalibrate incentives. The West is now debating weight-based taxation, differentiated registration fees, or annual levies tied to vehicle weight that better align user cost with infrastructure wear. India can also start discussing these changes. Simultaneously, engineering standards must be upgraded to reflect the new vehicle reality. Development cannot be measured by SUVs sold or expressways launched, but by whether citizens reach home safely, and comfortably.>

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