The pledge is to work towards reaching 100% zero emission new cars sales in leading markets by 2035 or earlier
Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo signed on
Toyota, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Renault-Nissan and Hyundai-Kia refused to sign
The COP26 conference on climate that is currently taking place in Glasgow, Scotland has seen some automakers taking a pledge to work on achieving 100% zero emission new car and van sales in leading markets by 2035, but some other companies didn’t do the same.
The automakers that reinforced their commitment to alleviate climate change are Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. All of these companies already had plans to reduce their emissions in that time frame, with GM planning to go all electric in 2035 and Volvo by 2030. Mercedes also wants to achieve fully electric sales by 2030, but only in certain markets.
While this is good news, many major automakers decided to not sign this pledge. Indeed, Toyota, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Renault-Nissan and Hyundai–Kia left themselves out of the agreement.
These companies didn’t explain their decision except for Toyota, the world’s best-selling automaker, who said its global business would make it “difficult” to keep up with the commitment.
This doesn’t look good, since both of the biggest automakers declined to commit to the electric transition.
Other reasons that have pushed these companies to stay out of the pledge probably include the high costs related to accelerating the development of electric vehicles and the desire to not be locked-in to an agreement which they could be unable to fulfill.
This decision will not gain these automakers any favors from the environmentalists, especially Toyota, which was recently named the third most hindering company against climate change, right behind ExxonMobil and Chevron. For reference, the next automaker on the list was BMW, in 18th place.
