Automakers Making Inadequate Progress On Cleaning Up their Supply Chains, 2025 Results of Clean Cars Scorecard Shows

No company scores more than 50%, three automakers in dead heat at the top of the rankings (Tesla, Ford, and Mercedes). 

Automotive industry the largest consumer of primary steel in US, scorecard reveals dismal progress on decarbonization

USA – Lead the Charge unveiled its third annual Auto Supply Chain Leaderboard on Tuesday, ranking 18 global automakers based on their efforts to build equitable, sustainable, and fossil-free supply chains as they transition to electric vehicles (EVs). This year’s analysis finds that, despite notable achievements in some areas by automakers, the industry overall is making slow and inadequate progress on cleaning up its supply chains: for the third year running, no automaker achieved a total score of over 50% and the total average score across all automakers is just 22%. 

The comprehensive benchmark considers 1,584 data points, evaluating each company across 88 indicators to assess their performance on addressing climate, environmental, and human rights impacts within their supply chains. The Leaderboard is based on an analysis of publicly available company reporting that has received board level sign off. The cut-off date for company disclosures to be included in the analysis was July 01, 2024.

Three automakers were in a dead heat at the top of the Leaderboard this year, with Tesla narrowly emerging as this year’s top scorer, just surpassing Ford by 0.5% and Mercedes by 1.4%. Tesla’s supply chain teams have made important progress in a number of areas, including by disclosing detailed information on its supply chain mapping efforts and direct sourcing agreements with mining suppliers, and still being the only automaker to disclose disaggregated scope 3 emissions for its steel, aluminum, and battery supply chains. Nonetheless, the company only achieved a total score of 43% and is lagging behind competitors on several issues, including steel and aluminum decarbonization, and workers’ rights. 

“It’s clear automakers have more work to do in cleaning up their supply chains as they invest in the crucial and inevitable global EV transition,” Katherine García, Director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign. “Thanks to current vehicle emissions standards, we are seeing an expanding EV market by the top performers on the scorecard. However, Tesla’s progress is deeply threatened by Elon Musk’s dangerous about-face as he works to dismantle the U.S. government and undermine the federal EV incentives, which have significantly benefited Tesla itself. This would be a shameful time to change course this late in the game for a livable climate. And once again, Toyota – the world’s largest automaker – comes in trailing the pack, showing no improvement whatsoever on supply chain decarbonization since the first version of this scorecard. We need every automaker to accelerate the pace of EV manufacturing to ensure we can stave off the very worst of the climate crisis. Time is of the essence." 

“This scorecard tracks the auto industry’s commitment to curb the climate, environment, and public health impacts of the steel and aluminum used in their manufacturing processes. The automotive industry is the largest consumer of primary steel in the U.S. and carries a great responsibility in communicating to industry partners that it expects innovations in steelmaking to ensure the materials it uses do not degrade public health and contribute to climate change,” said Yong Kwon, Senior Campaign Advisor of Sierra Club’s Industrial Transformation Campaign. “Unfortunately, there is still ample room for improvement across the board. We have yet to see additional automakers join Ford, GM, and Volvo in committing to adopt clean steel and aluminum in production. In the future, we also want to see companies with commitments expand their ambition and create tangible plans to achieve their goals.”

Key Findings from the 2025 Leaderboard Rankings:

• Volvo made the most progress, with an overall score increase of 9 percentage points. The company improved its performance across 7 of the 8 subsections and also achieved the largest score increase against the climate and environmental indicators, where Volvo’s score is now more than double the industry average.
• Tesla sits precariously in first place: The work of Tesla’s policy teams delivered the company's positive global climate lobbying record in 2024, which was a key factor in the company’s improved score this year. However, in the light of recent reports of the company’s support of the elimination of EV tax credits in the United States, Tesla could easily lose the top spot next year if the company’s positive record is not maintained.
• Ford was the top scorer on human rights and responsible sourcing for the third year running, whilst Mercedes was the only automaker evaluated that ranks among the top five highest scorers across each of the Leaderboard’s eight subsections.
• For the second consecutive year, Chinese automaker Geely achieved one of the largest score improvements, highlighting its strides in supply chain sustainability and responsible sourcing. Kia and Volkswagen also achieved impressive score increases this year.
• Japanese automakers Toyota, Nissan and Honda were the worst performers of the year, with the smallest improvement in their scores overall. Whilst Toyota and Honda did make some important progress on human rights due diligence, none of the companies improved their scores on supply chain sustainability and decarbonization. In fact, Toyota is the only company evaluated since 2023 that has not improved its score at all in this area. 

This year’s Leaderboard also reveals several important trends in relation to automotive supply chain sustainability. The results present a dismaying picture regarding steel and aluminum decarbonization. After an initial flurry of progress by multiple automakers last year, performance this year has largely stagnated. Steel and aluminum make up nearly 50% of the average embodied emissions of an electric vehicle and the automotive industry represents a major source of demand for both industries. 

On the other hand, after two years of near industry-wide inaction on Indigenous Peoples’ rights,  this past year shows some initial indications of growing momentum on this issue, with several automakers either making new commitments or improving their existing performance in this area. However, with an average score across all companies of just 6%, this continues to be the lowest scoring category by far. 

This year’s results also send an encouraging message to policymakers and regulators that have been working to drive better performance by companies on supply chain sustainability and due diligence. The areas of the Leaderboard that saw the greatest progress this year were also those that have been targeted by recently approved policies and regulations, such as the EU Battery Regulations and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. This underlines the importance of maintaining strong EU accountability legislation, such as the CSDDD, which is currently at risk of being weakened. Undermining these measures would jeopardize the progress that has been made and disrupt the promising path of change.

Despite the slow overall rate of progress, this year’s results also give reason to hope that the industry can do much better. Over half of the indicators are fully met by at least one company and companies could increase their scores to over 70% by matching the practices of their highest performing peers across different areas. There is significant room for improvement if other companies follow the best practices of industry leaders.