Toyota, Honda and Nissan decarbonisation efforts lagging, Greenpeace study says

Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor CO ranked at the bottom of a new Greenpeace study on 10 automakers' efforts to tackle climate change, the environmental group said on Thursday.

Greenpeace ranked Toyota last out of the top 10 automakers in sales volume - it got the same rating last year - and pointed out that zero-emission vehicles made up less than 1% of the company's sales, and noted slow progress in supply chain decarbonisation.

Toyota in December upgraded its annual sales target of fully electric vehicles to 3.5 million units from 2 million units by 2030, but that is insufficient, said Daniel Read, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan.

"Fundamentally, when compared to other global automakers, they're falling far behind," Read said.

The ranking measured progress in phasing out internal-combustion engines, supply chain decarbonisation and resource reduction and efficiency.

A Toyota spokesperson said in a statement that the company is working to slash CO2 emissions as much and quickly as possible, adding that it will continue "make every effort possible to offer as many options of (battery electric vehicles) and other multi-powertrains to our customers around the world."

Some green investors and environmental groups have said the company should move faster to introduce fully electric (or "battery electric") vehicles, rather than keeping the internal combustion engine in hybrids.

Toyota rolled out its first mass-produced electric vehicles, the bZ4X SUV, in May but was recalled less than two months later because of a risk wheels could come loose. Still, it said last week it would invest up to 730 billion yen in Japan and the United States to make batteries for fully electric vehicles.

Nissan and Honda ranked 8th and 9th, respectively, both dropping three places from last year's ranking.

Greenpeace said Honda does not have a roadmap to achieve the targets, including making zero-emission vehicles and fuel cell vehicles 100% of new sales. It also said sales of zero-emission vehicles have not grown significantly for Nissan, which was considered a pioneer in the fully electric vehicle market with the Leaf.

A Honda spokesperson said it would continue to try to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. A Nissan spokesperson declined to comment on the report but said the company would continue to accelerate its electrification efforts.

General Motors Co kept the top position.