Wimbledon tennis urged to shelve ‘dangerous SUVs’ association

Leading transport campaign organisations have criticised the All England Club for accepting sponsorship from Jaguar Land Rover and using the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport SUVs as official vehicles for this year’s Wimbledon Championships.

In an open letter, organisations ‘Mums for Lungs’ and Campaign for Better Transport, call on the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to drop the Range Rover as the official Wimbledon vehicle partner and to instead transport players, their teams and event officials via healthier and more sustainable means.

According to haulage company Transport & Environment UK, in the UK, SUVs (sports utility vehicles) make up 60 per cent of new car sales, up from 19 per cent just 10 years ago, with demand heavily driven by sponsorship, marketing and advertising.

The letter comes one week ahead of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, and at a time of heightened scrutiny of sporting and cultural event sponsorship.

James Ward, a campaigner at Adfree Cities, who coordinated the letter, said: “Use of the Range Rover at Wimbledon helps sustain the connection between Range Rover and luxury, Britishness, tradition and a host of other positive values.

“In reality, SUVs like the Range Rover, are nothing but a source of luxury emissions, clogging the streets of our historic towns and cities and leaving a legacy of increasing road danger in their wake.

“Promoting SUVs through sport should be viewed with the same horror we would view the promotion of cigarettes through sport. It’s time that Wimbledon took SUVs off Centre Court and lived up to its values by promoting sustainable travel.”

The letter calls attention to the ways in which SUVs make roads less safe for other users. Typically heavier than an average car, SUVs are more dangerous in a collision, even at a lower speed, campaigners say.

With a kerb weight nearing three tonnes for certain models, the Range Rover is well over twice as heavy as a traditional small car like a Ford Fiesta.[

As well as growing in popularity, SUVs are growing in size, campaigners say, making them too large for many urban on-street parking spaces.

The danger posed by large SUVs was brought into tragic focus last year when a Land Rover Defender (previously the official vehicles partner of Wimbledon) crashed into a local school and killed two eight-year-old schoolgirls, Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau.

Jaguar Land Rover has been a major sponsor of Wimbledon since 2015.

The Range Rovers used at Wimbledon include plug-in hybrid models, but the addition of a battery serves to increase the weight of the vehicle, increasing tyre and brake wear and corresponding particulate pollution, critics say.

Robert Davis, chairman of the Road Danger Reduction Forum, said: “All cars pose serious potential risk to other people, but given their weight, size and design, SUVs are particularly dangerous, especially to children.

“Wimbledon is a much-loved and respected British institution and it’s a shame to see them associating their brand with Range Rover SUVs that so clearly represent the threat posed by such vehicles.”

The AELTC and Jaguar Cars have both been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: One of the sponsored vehicles at the All England Club (Picture: James Ward)