A Greenpeace Asia report criticizes Toyota, Honda and Nissan for their lack of progress on electric vehicles and decarbonization. Worse, another report accuses Toyota of anti-climate lobbying.
Quite a volley of green wood than the recent report Auto Environmental Guide 2022, published by Greenpeace Asia, which ranks the world’s 10 car manufacturers according to their environmental performance. Toyota, Nissan and Honda are once again pilloried for their lack of progress on electric vehicles and decarbonization efforts. The three Japanese are ranked at the back of the pack (Toyota 10th, Nissan 8th and Honda 9th), while General Motors climbs to the top of the podium, followed by Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.
To establish this top 10, Greenpeace based itself on the progress of manufacturers in terms of decarbonization of the supply chain, the gradual abandonment of thermal vehicles, the reduction and efficiency of resources.
Of this Japanese trio, Toyota is the preferred target of the NGO. A shame for the manufacturer of the Prius, released almost 15 years ago and darling of environmentalists. In its report, Greenpeace reveals that 499 out of 500 Toyota vehicles run on fossil fuels. While in 2021, global sales of zero-emission vehicles had doubled, Toyota’s of this type accounted for only 0.2%, the lowest proportion among the 10 largest automakers.
As if that weren’t enough, a second report by Greenpeace ranks Toyota as the third global anti-climate lobby, after Exxon Mobil and Chevron. The manufacturer is accused of lobbying against the anti-pollution standards of thermal vehicles and of slowing the adoption of electric vehicles.
For Violette Snow, head of the Pacific campaign of Greenpeace Australia, “Toyota is a global obstacle to electric vehicles, lobbying to weaken fuel efficiency standards, greenwashing its image and promoting misinformation about electric vehicles, all while raking in big profits from polluting internal combustion engines. and fossil-fuel hybrid cars” (source The Driven).
A delay due to its conservative culture
But, beyond its large automobile firms, isn’t Japan a victim of its corporate culture? As pointed out by our colleague Peter Jackson from the site Electrek, “the country strongly believes in order and hierarchy”. Result, “When it comes to a major change, it is the leaders who take care of it. And if you look at the past speeches of top Toyota, Honda or Nissan officials, you will notice a tendency to think like the saying: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.”*
This way of thinking often results in slow changes. And to give the recent example of a statement made by Toyota North America’s Executive Vice President of Sales: “I don’t think the market is ready [pour les VE]. I don’t think the infrastructure is ready.”
A wish to reverse the trend
Despite Greenpeace’s skepticism of Honda’s strategy to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2030, and the fact that electric vehicle pioneer Nissan is lagging in sales, stakeholders finally seem to be taking aware of the accumulated delay. For example, Toyota announced last week the tripling of funding ($3.8 billion) for its battery plant for electric vehicles in North Carolina (United States), as well as the transformation of a plant production of internal combustion engines in electric versions.
For its part, Honda will invest $4.4 billion in a partnership with LG Energy (LGE) to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles in the United States. The Japanese has also entered into a partnership with its compatriot Hanwa aimed at guaranteeing its supply of essential metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium. Nissan, meanwhile, recently introduced its V2G, or Vehicle to Grid, solution for Nissan Leaf owners.