If you’ve been following the automotive industry, you’ll know that the trend of building bigger vehicles has been prominent for a while now. And, for automobile manufacturers, it looks like 2026 will be the first year that garage doors begin to undergo a significant size disruption. If you plan to change vehicles in the next couple of years, a good proportion of this country’s garage doors will start feeling the need for adjustment.
Electric SUVs Are the Next Big Thing
Take a look at what’s being offered in 2026, and you’re likely to notice a pattern. Electric SUVs are taking the front and center stage. Top manufacturers, including BMW, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, and Bentley, are releasing new models of electric SUVs, and it seems like everyone else in the industry is following suit. In fact, even car companies that were traditionally known for saloon and hatchback style vehicles are jumping to the SUV segment.
While the Tesla Model Y, Kia EV6, and Ford’s Mach-E have been available and relatively popular for the past couple of years, they are all significantly larger than the general vehicles that families were buying a decade ago. They have wing mirrors that protruss further, sit taller, and are wider, likely to accommodate the larger battery packs that are standard in EV vehicles.
If you have your garage door opener installed when it was commonplace design, you would probably be doing a lot of holding your breath when you would pull into your garage, and it wouldn’t be an over exaggeration to be doing this in the winter and in the dark, and if you do this often, it gets older really quickly.
Family-Sized EVs Need Extra Space
The other large design trend for 2026 is the three-row SUVs and three-row BYD Seagull EVs aimed at families. These are properly big cars – think family hatchback, compact MPV, or small traditional SUV.
If you are getting a five-seater model and are switching to a seven-seater you are not just getting a little bit of length. The vehicles are now taller to fit an extra row of seats, and a wider to fit to give additional space to the passengers seated in the middle row. More and more family people are buying large but older vehicles, making the size of a garage door snd its clearance height a problem.
The Roof Box Problem
EVs do have that strange issue where their boor opening space is slightly smaller than their combustion engine sibling due to the placement of the batteries. As such, camping/family holidays are encouraged be an outdoorsy/everybody-roof box-rental or their own box.
This is where the issue lies. If you have insufficient door clearance and you have to take the box off, it becomes an unnecessary hassle. As, you then have to do the cycle of removing it every time you have to park.
This is where an 8ft garage door is useful, you don’t have to worry about scrapping your roof box every time you drive home.
It’s Easier to Sort Out Now
Easier than replacing it’s to just do proper adjustments on your previous build. Trying to find the right door on the first take before you take your car is absolutely chaos, and the existing door becomes cluttered.
If the door is really old, it might be time to figure out what possible vehicles the user might use over the next five to ten years.
Typically, there is only a slight price difference when opting for an 8 or 9-foot door from a 7-foot one. Also, that width will save you from being constrained in your selection of vehicles in the future, as the present trajectory of vehicles, especially electric ones, suggests they’ll likely appreciate that extra space more sooner rather than later.