Homeowners are facing a ‘parking crisis’ as the increasing size of new cars is preventing many from parking on their own streets, according to a report. 

The average car in showrooms today takes up one square metre more than it did 20 years ago, according to market analysis.

Because of this, four fewer vehicles can squeeze on to a 200m residential street, forcing some property owners to park on another road further away from their home in what has been dubbed a national 'parking crisis'.

It comes a month after a separate study forecast that cities and large towns in the UK will have to wave goodbye to 10 per cent of their roadside parking spaces by 2040 due to growing vehicle dimensions and the increasing popularity of 'oversized SUVs'.

It warned that London alone will lose 100,000 kerbside bays in the next 14 years.

Carmakers have accepted that vehicle dimensions are growing, blaming stricter crash-protection requirements – including larger crumple zones to shield occupants – for increasing vehicle footprints.

The transition to electric vehicles – which require longer and wider platforms to allow more batteries to be stored under the car's floor for longer ranges – is also having an impact on the size of passenger models entering the market. 

The analysis by automotive data technology specialist Vehicle Data Global (VDG) reveals that the average car this year has a footprint of 8.61 square metres.

This compares to 7.67 square metres in 2006.

Looking back at historical data, VDG found that the rate of increasing car dimensions has doubled over the last decade, compared to the period from 2006 to 2016, meaning the parking squeeze has worsened more rapidly in recent years.

And while the separate study by green think-tank Transport and Environment (T&E) blamed rising sales of large SUVs, VDG said the 'car growth phenomenon' expands beyond these traditionally bigger vehicles.

It pointed to the nation's best-selling supermini – the Vauxhall Corsa – as a prime example of 'car spreading'.

The Corsa in showrooms today occupies 7.17 square metres of space, while the version on sale three decades earlier in 1995 was almost a fifth smaller, taking up just 6.01 square metres.

The Ford Focus family hatchback is another case in point. Its footprint has grown by 13.4 per cent from 7.07 square metres in 1998 to 8.02 square metres today.

The Volkswagen Golf also expanded at a similar rate: its footprint has extended by 12.4 per cent compared to 20 years ago, increasing from 6.81 square metres in 1995 to 7.66 square metres in 2026.

Separate analysis conducted last year also found that the footprint of some of the longest serving models has expanded dramatically over the generations.

The current three-door Mini on sale today takes up 77 per cent more space than the 1959 original.

Today's BMW 3 Series is over a fifth larger in footprint than the 1975 Mk1 model, while the VW Polo has grown by more than 25 per cent in the last half a century.

VDG says the issue of larger cars today is now a major inconvenience for the third of households who do not have off-street parking.

For those living on streets lined with terraced housing, where homeowners scramble to find the closest space to their home, the report says one in 22 available spaces has disappeared as a result of cars being longer than they were two decades ago.

On a typical residential terraced street of 200m, in 2006 it would accommodate a maximum of 94 cars parked nose to tail. But today, the capacity has fallen to just 90 motors.

In a more realistic scenario, where drivers leave half a metre between their vehicle and the next car to allow them to manoeuvre out of the space, the maximum number of cars on a single street has declined from 84 to 81.

And it too is causing headaches for the wider driving public – especially those behind the wheel of HGVs and larger vehicles that often have to navigate town and city centres.

This is because cars are, on average, getting 1cm wider every two years.

On residential roads where homeowners park on both sides of the street, the drivable area in between has significantly reduced since 2006.

For a typical 5.5m-wide residential street, the drivable channel has narrowed from about 1.89m in 2006 to just 1.64m.

With an additional 5.7million cars registered in Britain, compared with 2006, the scale of 'parking pain' is unprecedented, says VDG.

Ben Hermer, its operations director, said growing dimensions will 'inevitably lead to a greater parking crisis' across the country over the coming years.

'With the average car taking up more space than ever before, many drivers without off-street parking are increasingly squeezed out of the spaces they would have had 20 years ago,' he said.

'It shows that the increase in interior space and comfort that we all enjoy in modern cars has come at a significant cost in stress for millions of drivers.'

London to lose 100,000 roadside parking spaces by 2040 

Last month, eco zealots at T&E said growing vehicle size poses an 'unprecedented threat to urban space' that will 'eliminate vast numbers of parking spaces' over the next decade.

The campaign group said newly sold cars in Britain are, on average, getting longer by 1.2cm each year, 0.5cm wider and 0.5cm taller. 

Bonnet heights are also increasing by 0.5cm annually, which it said is posing a greater risk to pedestrians, especially small children because drivers behind the wheel won't be able to see them stood directly in front of their vehicles.

It went on to blast the car industry for trying to increase sales of larger models to benefit from bigger profit margins, rather than focusing on smaller, more affordable new cars that are better for the environment and clog up less of our streets.

It also criticised public demand for bigger motors, saying family sizes and car occupancy is declining, 'leaving vehicles taking up more room while carrying fewer people'.

T&E claims that if the trend seen over recent years continues, city authorities will be forced to redesign their roads to accommodate today's and the future's larger motors.

This will cut on-street parking capacity by between 8.5 and 14 per cent by 2040, with London alone set to lose approximately 100,000 spaces, it forecast.

'After 25 years of relentless growth, our streets are dominated by oversized SUVs that cities simply weren't designed for,' explained Anna Krajinska, T&E UK director.

'The result is a lose-lose: councils are forced to reshape streets around larger vehicles, sacrificing parking capacity, public space and safety in the process.

'This is a market failure. Without clear standards to limit car size and encourage right-sizing, car-spreading will continue unchecked, and cities will keep paying the price.'