Increased sales of SUVs cancel out the Group's own progress in climate protection
The world's three largest car manufacturers have significantly increased sales of climate-damaging SUVs in recent years and, according to Greenpeace, are thus "undoing" their own progress in climate protection. The environmental organization evaluated data from Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai-Kia: According to this, the car manufacturers increased sales of cars with an SUV appearance by over 150 percent each between 2013 and 2022.
The companies were thus going "in the opposite direction" to global efforts to curb CO2 emissions - despite their progress in electromobility, Greenpeace explained. The organization published its report on Wednesday, one day before the start of the World Climate Conference in Dubai.
According to the report, the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer is leading the growth: since 2013, sales of VW's sport utility vehicles (SUVs) have increased by 270.5 percent. According to Greenpeace, all of the Group's combustion vehicles on the road together emitted around 346 million tons of CO2 in 2022, which was 36.8 million tons more than five years earlier. The electric vehicles sold by VW to date only avoided around 5.6 million tons of CO2 in 2022, the report continued.
After analyzing the data, Greenpeace found that the increased sales of SUVs are undoing the Group's progress in climate protection. This assessment is particularly true for Volkswagen, whose sales of SUVs have skyrocketed by 270.5% since 2013. Despite progress in electromobility, Greenpeace highlights that thecompany's combustion vehicles are contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, these vehicles emitted around 346 million tons of CO2, an increase of 36.8 million tons from 2017, while only avoiding 5.6 million tons of CO2 with their electric vehicle sales.
Source: www.ntv.de
