GM, Mercedes-Benz pile among carmakers banking on China for EV sales, not doing enough on climate crisis, Greenpeace says

Sales of zero-emission vehicles did not exceed 9 per cent of the total at any of the world’s 10 biggest manufacturers last year, Greenpeace says

Carmakers are relying heavily on China to increase sales of such vehicles

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EVs built by General Motors and its local joint venture partners in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are seen in this file photo from February 2019. Carmakers are relying heavily on China to increase sales of ZEVs, Greenpeace says. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:15am, 8 Sep 2022Updated: 2:06pm, 8 Sep 2022

The world’s largest carmakers have relied heavily on the Chinese market to increase the sales of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), and are not moving away from fossil fuels at a rate sufficient to limit global warming, Greenpeace East Asia said.

This comes despite sales of ZEVs reporting their biggest increase globally in a decade last year, the environmental group said in a report released on Thursday. Progress has been uneven across carmakers and geographies, it added. Greenpeace defines ZEVs as electric cars that do not emit pollutants or carbon when operating. In this report, battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) and fuel cell EVs are regarded as ZEVs, but plug-in hybrid EVs are not.

Greenpeace found that ZEV sales did not exceed 9 per cent of the total at any of the world’s 10 biggest car manufacturers – including General Motors (GM), Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Ford – in 2021. Japan’s Toyota received the lowest score, with ZEVs comprising just 0.18 per cent of its total sales last year. Toyota also lagged behind on supply chain decarbonisation, Greenpeace said.

“There is a lot of hype around EVs right now, but the reality on the ground is that traditional carmakers are not doing nearly enough to transition to ZEVs,” said Ada Kong, project lead at Greenpeace.

The report is significant because Greenpeace suggests the car industry is not transitioning away from fossil fuels quickly enough to keep the planet’s average annual temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It urged carmakers to adopt ambitious ZEV transition strategies across all markets. Carmakers should stop selling conventional vehicles in Europe by 2028 and in the United States, China, South Korea and Japan before 2030. The transition to ZEVs must be implemented alongside investment in battery recycling, decarbonisation of the steel supply chain, and ensuring a just transition for industry workers to protect their rights and well-being.