Carrots and sticks: how we can all pressure the car industry to hit sustainability targets

That’s mainly because cars are a frighteningly expensive, and a long-term financial commitment for most households in the UK, so the upfront price, subsequent running costs and worries like reliability have always trumped all other concerns, so reveals consumer survey after survey.

It used to be said that only the rich could afford to think about climate change. Nowhere was this truer than in the world of cars, where electric cars remained stubbornly more costly than their petrol iterations, and sustainable interiors using responsibly sourced raw materials would set a premium on price tags. As much as drivers might have wanted to go green, the monthly finance deals on more polluting vehicles have always been too tempting. 

A further issue has been this very legacy of road transport as a huge contributor to global warming. It’s such an overwhelming polluter, consumers have let it languish at the bottom of their lists on ways to lower their carbon footprints. It’s as if everyone just accepted some time ago that cars are a necessary evil, and there’s not much to be done.

Fashion, food, drink, household energy usage and holidays have always seemed easier, more attainable areas for a reduction in emissions. As a result, not many people search on Google for “Most environmentally friendly cars to buy” or “top ten greenest cars”. Given this lack of volume in searches, journalists have never spent much time or energy covering the topic or pressing car manufacturers to provide information on their products’ footprints.

Thus, the industry has found itself in a vicious circle of no questions, no answers and no dialogue. It’s like there’s been some grand omertà we all unwittingly shook hands on.

Luckily for the planet, all that is changing. Much of it is due neither to the will of brands nor the force of journalists or even pressure from consumers, but rather the demands of EU and government regulation (it would have been healthier for everyone if this stuff had been done voluntarily and ahead of time, but in the absence of carrots, sticks will have to suffice).

Most European countries already have their own emissions targets for their domestic markets (ours is the Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate, which stipulates the percentage of electric car sales each marque must make, which rises every year), and this is complemented by legislation for the amount of recycled material in cars, and the amount that must be recycled. 

Perhaps the most significant policy introduced by the EU was the End-of-Life-Vehicles (ELVs) Directive, which became a draft regulation in 2023 and requires 95 per cent of all material used in the making of a car to be reusable or recoverable when it’s scrapped. The 2023 move proposed that on top of this, 25 per cent of the plastic in a car should be recycled by 2030.

Plastics, however, are a big problem in all this. According to a report by the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), “vehicles typically include dozens of different polymers, making it extremely challenging to extract them all. Safety standards and the need for high performance add to the complexity of reprocessing these for reuse within automotives.”

But this is a challenge that has to be overcome, because European vehicles alone use about six million tonnes of plastic a year, contributing up to 50 per cent of a car’s volume, according to the same ICIS report. They’re present in everything from windscreens, seats and battery cases to the dashboard and the base oils in lubricants.

Car companies are working hard on this now; unsurprisingly, consumers are becoming rapidly aware that some cars have a much lower carbon footprint than others. That awareness began with the move from petrol to electric, which sparked conversations around emissions and energy usage. As Chinese brands have entered the UK market, drivers have started to ask questions about both the ethics and the environmental behaviours of all car companies. There may be a Google data lag on searches for greener cars, but believe me, it’s coming.

How ready is the industry to answer these questions? Well, this year Ford set a target for 20 per cent of the plastic in its new vehicles built in European plants to be recycled and renewable. Stellantis has been building a credible and profitable circular-economy model across its brands on a global scale.

BMW already makes 100 per cent of under-floor material from recycled insulation using old clothes. By 2030, 40 per cent of thermoplastics, typically used in car batteries and wiring, will be made from recycled materials.

Renault showed off its efforts last year with its Embleme concept car, which has slashed CO2-equivalent emissions by 90 per cent over an equivalent vehicle built today, to produce just five tonnes of CO2e over its lifetime. Polestar, an automotive leader in sustainability, has reduced the greenhouse gas emissions for its Polestar 2 model by three tonnes in three years, which is quite the achievement. 

Its own 2023 environmental study, however, found that unless the automotive industry acts urgently, it will be on track to overshoot its 2050 carbon target by 75 per cent. That is an appalling thought. 

So, while great strides have been made thanks to regulation, media and consumers have to keep the pressure on the industry. We’ve done a lot, but it’s not nearly enough.

What about a few more carrots alongside the regulatory sticks? A small but effective move is awards and recognition. Prizes for net zero achievements should be as valuable a marketing commodity as winning World Car of the Year, something to drive sales through the years to come, for sure. Similarly, green ratings on editorial reviews can help prospective buyers make informed choices, clearly indicating environmentalism as a key consumer concern to manufacturers.

The industry should not wait for consumers to ask the questions before they answer them. Transparency and honesty will be the key drivers in consumer loyalty as this decade draws to a close. By the end of this year, British drivers will have over 70 brands to choose from when deciding what car to buy next, compared with just 49 brands five years ago.

You’d think that would be incentive enough for brands to open up the conversation and show the public what steps they are taking to save our environment. The early bird catches the worm, after all.