Tesla, Ford, and Volvo occupy the top three spots in a new ranking of 18 global automakers based on their efforts to eliminate carbon emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains. Toyota, meanwhile, lurks near the bottom of the list, underscoring the persistent difficulty in getting the world’s largest car company to clean up its supply chain.
The rankings were compiled by Lead the Charge, a global coalition of leading climate, environment, and human rights organizations that includes the Sierra Club, The Sunrise Project, and Public Citizen, among others. This is the fourth edition of the coalition’s annual ranking of automakers’ supply chain practices.
Since the leaderboard started, automakers have nearly doubled their score on supply chain environmental and human rights impacts, and twice as many automakers now have taken steps to respect indigenous peoples’ rights as when the study started. That said, no automaker has achieved even a 50 percent score on clean supply chains, with Tesla getting the closest with 49 percent.
Five automakers — Ford, Volvo, Tesla, Mercedes, and Volkswagen — are way out ahead of the rest of the companies in terms of cleaning up its supply chain, the group concludes. Those companies have “achieved a rate of progress that is double that of the remaining 13 companies” since the first ranking was released in 2023, Lead the Charge says in a press release. They cite Volvo and Mercedes making significant investments in steel and aluminum decarbonization, as well as Mercedes, VW, and Tesla releasing detailed raw material reports, among the examples of progress.
EVs were singled out for significant progress in decarbonization, recycling, transparency, and responsible sourcing. Even in the face of partisan hostility and vanishing subsidies, EVs still offer a better choice to most consumers, the group argues.
This year, Chinese companies are taking important steps to improve their standing in the rankings. The group cites Geely and BYD, in particular, for developing best practices and putting in place new codes of conducts around its material supply chain.
Toyota, which has long been the focus of environmentalist ire, is near the bottom of the list, along with Chinese state-owned car companies such as GAC and SAIC. The group says these companies have “made little to no progress in areas such as steel and aluminum decarbonization or responsible mineral sourcing.” While the Japanese auto giant has outlined plans for several new EVs in recent months, it still has a long way to go before it can compare its record on climate and human rights to the likes of Tesla and Ford.
