Room to grow: Why more SUVs, crossovers are getting useful third rows

After years of boasts over the expanding size of their infotainment screens, automakers seem to have collectively moved on to a new measuring contest with which to extol their own virtues: third-row real estate.

Across the industry, there's now a growing list of growing crossovers and SUVs — vehicles that either had three rows and are now adding inches specifically for their third-row seating, or long-standing two-row vehicles that are growing to seven-seaters from five.

Like most things in the industry, the reason comes down to money: Consumer demand for three-row vehicles is increasing overall, and, according to executives from several automakers, adding more legroom to third-row seats is among the best ways an automaker can make some extra money with little extra investment.

It's "one of the best returns on investment in the industry," one automaker executive, who did not want to be identified, told Automotive News, "because I can add essentially a few inches of sheet metal" with very few other changes to the other components of a vehicle and charge more.

The list of automakers that either have added, are adding or will add space to their three-row SUVs or crossovers is extensive and growing. Some examples:

• This year, Toyota will introduce a new, larger version of its popular Highlander crossover named the Grand Highlander, which doesn't go on sale until 2023. It will be built in the same Indiana assembly plant as the Highlander but differentiate itself in large part by adding inches to the third row. Toyota will also address the third row of its body-on-frame SUV, the Toyota Sequoia, as part of its redesign onto the brand's new F1 platform this year.
• For the 2021 model year, General Motors gave the third rows of its highly profitable Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe SUVs a major upgrade by adding 40 percent more legroom — about 10 inches — as part of a redesign.
• Stellantis also got in on the trend in 2021 with its addition — after almost three decades — of a third-row variant of its popular Jeep Grand Cherokee, as well as with the return of the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer nameplates.
• Though it wouldn't confirm it officially for the U.S., Audi last fall was spotted testing a larger version of its three-row luxury Q7 crossover in Germany, called the Q9, which would directly address a main shortcoming of the Q7 — third-row legroom. Dealers said the Q9 is expected to be in U.S. showrooms by 2026.

"There are always some engineering expenses associated, but compared to a full vehicle program, those costs are pretty incremental compared to what you can charge for it," explained Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights and a former automotive engineer. "For most vehicles, from the rear axle forward, there are almost no unique parts" needed to add space to third-row seating.

Getting the third row right from a size and packaging perspective is hugely important to automakers. In September, Volkswagen Group of America CEO Scott Keogh, and his boss, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess, discussed with a group of journalists at the Munich auto show just how important third-row size was to the American market, specifically as it related to VW's upcoming ID6 electric vehicle, which Keogh believes is undersized for U.S. consumers. VW will sell the three-row in China and plans to import the ID6 into Europe, but it is not expected to be sold in the U.S.

"We know the [large crossover] segment quite well from the Atlas, and I can promise you, we will put [an EV] in that segment, that's for sure, so we have plans. The ID6 isn't quite sized there," Keogh said in Munich.

"I like the car. I think it would suit Americans, but in the end, the decision is local," Diess replied, looking at Keogh. "It's selling very well in China."

"It's a good car," Keogh responded to his boss, "but it's not quite sized there."

For automotive designers and engineers, third-row seating in crossovers and SUVs has been a work in progress for more than a decade, with the evolution nowhere more apparent than with Jeep. The off-road brand has transformed its third-row offering from the famously "unfit for human consumption" 2010 Jeep Commander to relative minivan-levels of comfort in the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L.

The Commander "was how not to do a third row," recalled Ralph Gilles, now head of design at Stellantis. "We had that fresh in our mind when we were doing the [2014 Dodge] Durango and stuff like that."

Gilles said he and his design team learned lessons from the Durango, especially in terms of third-row entry and exit as well as having adequate space for passengers' feet — called the "toe garage" — that have carried over into subsequent three-row designs such as for the Grand Cherokee L.

But, Gilles cautions, doing proper three-row seating in a crossover or SUV is no simple matter of adding inches.

"You don't want to make the car too long; it starts to look funny," Gilles explained. "Consumers want everything; they want the car to be nice and tight on the outside but huge on the inside ... so we ended up working on every section you could imagine."

The result, Gilles said, was that the Grand Cherokee L is "maybe an inch and a half longer than the Durango, but the rear legroom is significantly better. The car is 2 inches lower than the old Durango, but the headroom is better. It's more or less the same seating package, but the nip and tucks we worked on — the headpocket in the headliner, where the hinges are — when you sit back there in the Grand Cherokee L, it's astonishing how good it is."

When GM redid its large three-row SUVs for the 2021 model year, it also got creative on how to expand its second- and third-row seating beyond just extending the sheet metal or the wheelbase. A spokeswoman told Automotive News in an email that the automaker "used a balance of maximizing visibility and second- and third-row leg, shoulder and head room in each model to create a more spacious vehicle. A few of the changes we incorporated included shrink-wrapping the side wall trim and the headliner as close to the sheet metal as possible and shrink-wrapping the seat plastics and seat backs closer to the seat frames."

While automaker executives and product planners are keen to make their aft seating as luxurious and easy to access as possible, other limitations come into play to dampen their otherwise unvarnished enthusiasm for bigger and better. Weight, aerodynamics and fuel economy certainly play a role, as do comparisons with minivans, which retain the industry crown as the most comfortable three-row people haulers.

"Everything is just easier in a minivan," explained Kevin Hunter, president of Toyota Motor Corp.'s North American design studio, Calty Design Research. "The packaging is just better; there's more room to do things for entry/egress, the seating height position." Toyota redesigned its Sienna minivan in 2020 and is finishing up final touches on the Grand Highlander before its debut this year.

"We're always trying to get as much room as we can in the rear space, and it seems like the demand for third-row seating vehicles is just increasing," Hunter said. "We're always looking for ways to optimize not only the seating position, but the roominess, and also the entry and egress into the third row — that always seems to be a pretty big challenge."

Hunter's team at Calty must deal with an extra challenge to aft seating that some other automakers have yet to encounter: hybrid battery packs that can encroach on rear seating space.

Doing third-row seating right is tough, Hunter said. But third-row seating done wrong is worse: "I think of it as being in the penalty box ... when you get back there for a long trip or anything."

Hannah Lutz contributed to this report.