Ethical Cars and Electric Cars

The change from petrol and diesel to electric cars

Change comes slowly, and then suddenly all at once. In 2015, pure electric cars made up less than 1% of new vehicles registered in the UK. In 2022, in the year to date, electric vehicle registrations were close to 15%.

And at the global and legislative level too, it is really starting to look like the great internal combustion engine (ICE), first seen in 1876, is finally being told to lay its wee tired carburettor down to rest.

Over 40 countries have announced upcoming bans of sales of new ICE passenger cars, ranging from 2025 in Norway, to 2030 in Germany, 2035 in China and 2050 in Indonesia. In the UK, all new sales of pure ICE cars are to end by 2030, although hybrids will still be able to be sold up until 2035. And the European Parliament has also voted in favour of revised regulation on C02 standards of all new cars and vans sold from 2035 to be zero emissions. 

Some companies have dragged their feet. In March 2021, the Guardian revealed that BMW, Ford, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, and McLaren had lobbied the government hard not to bring the ICE ban forward from 2040. Honda and Ford have also succeeded in getting them to exempt hybrids until 2035, rather than the 2032 date the Climate Change Committee had wanted, by talking ominously of job losses at British car factories, most of which currently produce hybrids. All these companies lost marks in our political activities category.

However, it is clearly the rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs) that has given governments the confidence to act. And Tesla, the only dedicated EV company in this guide, undeniably helped – shifting the EV’s image from milk float into lightning bolt.

Are electric cars more environmentally friendly? 

What is the carbon impact of electric cars vs ICE

The carbon impact of manufacturing a car depends both on the car and, as usual, how you estimate it. But it is widely agreed that manufacturing an EV has a higher carbon impact than making an ICE car.

Average estimates are about 6-7 tonnes of CO2e for an ICE car, and 10-11 for an electric. (10 tonnes is about the average UK per capita annual carbon footprint).

However, a lot of the extra is the electricity used in making the battery, meaning that a battery made in Tesla’s solar powered factory in Nevada will have a significantly lower impact than one made in China with its coal-powered grid electricity. And as electricity decarbonises, it will fall. Even China intends to decarbonise by 2060.

And you will quickly make it back in use.

Currently, a person driving an average size electric car an average distance on the UK grid electricity will save about 1.5 tonnes of CO2e a year, so you’ll repay the extra manufacturing debt in about two years. As the average life of a car in the UK is 13 years, electrics are definitely worth it in climate terms if you are buying a new car anyway. Savings will also increase as the grid decarbonises further.

 Should I buy an electric car now or wait?

There isn’t agreement on whether it is worth replacing early. Those who make higher estimates of the manufacturing emissions of making a car, like Mike Berners Lee, say don’t, while others disagree.

Using the figures above would suggest that you could make the total manufacturing emissions back within about seven years. However, that will also depend on what you are replacing, and with what – a larger EV will have a higher manufacturing impact. But replacing an old gas guzzling 4x4 right now might make sense too.

How green are hybrid cars?

While EVs may be driving on the heavenly highway, hybrids are currently parked in the dog house.

A major 2021 study by the International Council on Clean Energy (ICCT) looked at real-world driving of around 100,000 plug-in hybrids and found emissions to be two to four times higher than that claimed by official values, because they weren’t really being charged very often and so the battery wasn’t being used much (a plug-in hybrid runs on battery until it runs out of power, then switches to the ICE engine). That brings their lifetime emissions more in line with conventional ICE vehicles.

Cost, range and charging issues with electric cars

Ofgem recently reported that one in four UK consumers are planning to buy an electric or hybrid car in the next five years. Those who weren’t gave their reasons as price (59%), worries about range (38%) and about being able to charge it close to home (36%).

Some of these fears are outdated. As far as cost goes, although the initial outlay is still higher, EVs are already on average estimated to work out cheaper than comparable ICEs over their whole lifespan, although because public charge points can be expensive this probably depends on your being able to charge at home.

EVs are going to continue to get more financially favourable. Battery prices have fallen by nearly 90% in the last decade, and are expected to continue falling – over the next six years the cost is expected to drop between 19 and 37%.

Fears about range are also probably unfounded at this point. Average new EV ranges are now approaching 200 miles, and the talk is that the next generation of batteries, coming in the next few years, will be able to do 500 miles.

Charging issues may be a more real problem. It isn’t always easy to find public charge points - you can use Zap-Map to find them but it doesn’t always tell you which ones are occupied or out of service. However, it does for networks which have provided the map access to their live data, which is around 70% of chargers. Also, as above, it can be expensive.

However, the news on charge times is good. With rapid chargers they can now mostly just be a normal driving break – for many you can add 100 miles of range in about 30 minutes.

Some government help is available for smart home chargers if you live in rented accommodation or a flat – you can claim 75% up to a maximum of £350 through the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). There is also a workplace grant scheme to help workplaces install chargers. There was a grant on EVs themselves, which went direct to the dealer and was included in the price tag, but the UK Government scrapped it in June 2022.

Ethical and environmental issues with electric cars

All cars use a lot of steel, aluminium, copper and manganese. And EVs need six times more minerals than a conventional vehicle, also using significant amounts of lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, and small amounts of zinc and rare earth metals.

The two commonly expressed concerns about this are about scarcity and human rights abuses in supply chains.

As far as scarcity goes, the story is really about quality: in some cases there may be a shortage of high-grade reserves and extracting from low grade ores can be expensive and energy intensive. However, worries about scarcity have often been inflated with false rumours – there is no imminent danger of our running out of materials to make batteries. And the technology is continuing to evolve – Tesla is working on new batteries that do not contain cobalt, for example, which is one of the scarcer metals.

Concerns about abuses have been particularly focused on cobalt and lithium, although aluminium has also started to receive attention. We also covered many of the issues in our guide to batteries.

Lithium

The biggest current lithium producer is Australia, and there are fair amounts in China and parts of Europe, including the UK which has some high-grade deposits. Companies like Cornish Lithium are looking into extracting it.

However, over half of known lithium reserves are located in the 'lithium triangle' which spans Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. It is mostly in brine located in underground reservoirs below salt flats, from which it is extracted by pumping up the brine and evaporating off the water. This affects the water balance, and it is already a very arid area. Some local indigenous groups have protested, saying that it is affecting their water supply.

A number of technological solutions have been proposed, including improving or changing extraction methods. How well they work remains to be seen, but a lot of the problems are political, as companies are just not consulting with or compensating affected people. As Luisa Jorge, an activist in Susques, Argentina, said:

“lithium companies are taking millions of dollars from our lands … they ought to give something back. But they’re not.”

When it comes to processing of lithium and lithium-ion battery cells, a new report by Anti-Slavery International and partners says the percentage processed in the Uyghur Region, where there is systematic persecution by the Chinese government, continues to grow. Their guidance document for investors and policy brief to the UK Government says  “it is imperative for governments and investors to divest from the Uyghur Region and diversify sourcing locations to ensure both an ethical and stable source of inputs for solar and EV technologies.”

What can you do about lithium sourcing? 

The Anti-Slavery International report encourages consumers to use their bargaining power with companies that sell electric vehicles and solar panels to ask questions about their supply chains and links to the Uyghur Region before making a purchase. 
 

Cobalt

70% of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It isn’t associated with armed groups there like the other 'conflict minerals' we've heard so much about, but about a fifth of it comes from small artisanal mines where cobalt is dug from hazardous hand dug tunnels, often with no protective equipment and sometimes by young children. The miners are a mixture of waged labourers and people digging to sell the cobalt themselves. The DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world and a valuable mineral is an alluring prospect.

Some companies have tried to stop purchasing from these mines, and to just buy from the industrial mining operations which are regulated and don’t suffer from the same issues. However, as this threatens the livelihoods of those who depend on them, campaigners have urged companies instead to try to improve conditions, through initiatives like the Fair Cobalt Alliance, which Tesla has joined, and the Responsible Cobalt Initiative (RCI).

A lawsuit was filed in the US, in 2019, against several tech companies including Tesla, arguing that they have allowed dangerous forms of child labour to prosper in their cobalt supply chains. It was dismissed, but an appeal has been lodged.

Aluminium

Car manufacturers use 18% of all aluminium consumed worldwide, and more than half of it is primary aluminium produced from bauxite (as opposed to recycled). The biggest bauxite deposits are in Guinea (West Africa). Australia is the biggest producer, and mining has been associated with land and water grabbing in both countries.

Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler have joined a certification scheme, the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), formed in 2015, that audits mines, refineries, and smelters. Other companies should be encouraged to join.

Is there an ethical car company? 

Carbon Management and Reporting

This is the first time we have rated car companies against our new rating. To achieve a best, companies had to have dated targets for transitioning to non-ICE vehicles in major markets, have a reasonable discussion of what they are doing to reduce emissions, disclose emissions data and have a decent emissions reduction target. To achieve a middle rating, they had to do the same, minus the non-ICE vehicles targets.

Tesla was given a special exemption for this report as, unlike any of the other manufacturers, it makes exclusively electric cars. It doesn’t, however, report on all of its emissions or have a reduction target, which isn't too clever, even if it is an important disruptor. It should start doing this now.

Five others got a best rating:

• Volvo (100% electric by 2030)
• Renault (100% electric by 2030)
• Mercedes-Benz Group AG (will be all electric by 2030 “wherever market conditions allow” – this looks a bit like a get out clause, but it did have a lot of interim targets and an excellent discussion)
• Ford Motor Company (“by 2030, we expect EVs to represent half of global volume. In Europe, we expect 100% of our cars to be fully electric by 2030”)
• Kia (100% electric in major markets such as the United States and Europe by 2040).

Several car companies scored a worst rating:

• Mitsubishi, because its targets and discussion were both weak.
• Toyota, because its 2030 emissions target was weak.
• BMW (Mini, BMW and Rolls-Royce), because its discussion was poor.
• Suzuki, because its emissions target was weak.
• Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover), because it didn’t seem to publish any emissions data at all.
• Honda was marked down for manufacturing aircraft parts.

The remaining companies scored a middle rating in this category: General Motors, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Stellantis (Alfa Romeo, Citroen, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot and Vauxhall).

Workers' rights

Automotive supply chains are complex. A vehicle typically contains between 15,000 and 25,000 component parts, making it all the more important for car companies to transparently report on supply chain management and the measures taken to protect workers. Unfortunately, car companies are still off the mark when it comes to managing supply chain workers' rights issues.

No company achieved our best rating and only Stellantis and Volvo achieved a middle rating.

The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) was established in 2018 and is partially funded by the UK, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and German governments. Like Ethical Consumer, it produces company rankings, but in an annual Corporate Human Rights report. In 2020, looked it at automotive companies and found, just as we did, that the sector’s supply chain management is extremely weak. It stated that it was the worst performing sector it has ever examined.

There was less agreement between the specific scores of our rating and the WBA’s. In the meantime we separately marked down those who came at the bottom of WBA’s scale, which were: Nissan, Mitsubishi, Tesla, Suzuki, and Volvo (Geely).

Arms and military supply

Tata Motors (Jaguar, Range Rover and Land Rover) have supplied vehicles to the US Army in Afghanistan as well as the Myanmar Army, and it has been named on the Burma Campaign Dirty List.

Hyundai Rotem, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company, was found to manufacture ground weapon systems.