Europe

The reason pickups are as popular as they are in the US is mostly because they are heavily advertised. US people like trucks because corporate America tells them to, very effectively. They sell so many trucks because they want to, and there is two reasons for that.

The first is a long standing trade tariff with the EU that prevented significant competition in that specific category. The second is that environmental regulations are more lax on that same category, presumably lobbying has to do with that.

A person can live alone but regularly car pool with coworkers, get together with multiple friends, go on day trips with family, or make extra income by driving for Uber (larger vehicles can charge more). Heck, sometimes just needing extra leg or head room rules out most regular sedans and makes an SUV more comfortable.

Most SUVs and trucks have much less room for people than equivalently sized other vehicles. If you want very comfortable and roomy, look up a minivan. A VW Transporter has enough space inside to have a table you can sit around, seats more, if needed has more cargo space, consumes less fuel and is smaller and safer than an F-150.

In addition, if a person’s activities require a lot of cargo capacity, that essentially leaves you with either an SUV or a pickup as the primary options. So whether it’s for luggage, buying stock for a family store, etc… that could be another reason for purchasing an SUV.

You can buy a van with more cargo space than either a SUV or a truck.

Sometimes, people feel that having a higher view of the road is safer because they can see more of what’s ahead of them.

On the contrary, data shows that the higher centre of mass makes it much likelier that the truck will roll over, making them much more unsafe. This actually more than offsets the fact that in collisions, trucks and SUVs cause more damage to the counterparties, so they are more dangerous to both the occupants and everyone else. That said, if it makes you feel good that you will "win" a collision, consider the fact that the counterparty is also human, and may be someone you know. Every week, 50 children, predominantly toddlers get hit by their own parents driving SUVs, mostly while parking or getting out of their own parking area, due to the bad visibility these vehicles provide.

So don’t fall prey to judging people as only needing an SUV if they have a large household or live in rural areas. It’s a lot more involved than that.

It's actually very simple. No-one needs a SUV or a truck, large households or business owners need vans, rural people need actual off-roads which they don't care if they get all scratched and banged up from actually being used off-road.

US car manufacturers on the contrary NEED you to buy SUVs and trucks, and they spend a ton of money trying to convince you that you think you need that, too.