India is one of the fastest-growing auto markets in the world and an emerging hub for auto exports. Last October, Hyundai Motor launched a $3.3 billion IPO for its subsidiary in India, the largest in the country’s history.
However, while Hyundai and other automakers are looking to capitalize on India’s expanding auto sector, they have adopted a troubling double standard in their approach to climate change. Hyundai-Kia has targeted 100 percent electrification in Europe, the United States, and South Korea, but it lacks concrete electrification targets for India and other Global South markets. As climate disaster intensifies, Hyundai must phase out the sale of combustion engine vehicles across all markets.
Road transport is responsible for approximately 11 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – an annual volume on par with emissions from the United States and United Kingdom combined. To comply with the Paris Climate Agreement, automakers must end the sale of combustion engine vehicles globally by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
For years, civil society organizations have campaigned for top automakers, including Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai, to reduce their emissions. Recently Greenpeace East Asia’s Seoul office identified a worrisome trend: While Hyundai has slowly reduced its per-kilometer carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Europe and its home market of South Korea, emissions from the automaker’s vehicles have increased elsewhere. At the same time that Hyundai is advancing electrification at home, the automaker is effectively exporting its carbon footprint abroad.
The country hardest hit by this trend is India. Between 2018 and 2023, our analysis shows that Hyundai-Kia’s CO2 emissions per kilometer driven increased by more than 9 percent in India, the most of any region. By comparison, during the same period Hyundai-Kia’s emissions per kilometer driven in South Korea fell by nearly 9 percent and by almost 16 percent in Europe.
Hyundai’s carbon footprint in India now rivals that of the entire New Zealand economy, the analysis finds. Between 2018 and 2023, Hyundai-Kia’s total emissions in India grew by an alarming 70 percent. During the first half of 2024, EVs accounted for only one in 1,000 vehicles sold by Hyundai in India.
Hyundai’s emissions increase is contributing to a public health emergency. Each year, more than 2 million premature deaths in India are attributable to air pollution from fossil fuels. Combustion engine vehicles, including hybrids, emit toxic gases and particles that are key contributors to India’s air pollution crisis.
Moreover, Hyundai’s emissions increase in India and other markets is jeopardizing the automaker’s own climate targets. If Hyundai maintains its current emissions trajectory, according to Greenpeace calculations, it will achieve carbon neutrality by 2280 – over two centuries after its 2045 target.
Unfortunately, Hyundai and other automakers are adept at distracting audiences from their climate performance. Amid criticism of Hyundai’s climate record, the automaker has boasted about sales of its “eco-friendly vehicles,” a vague designation that includes hybrids (HEVs). HEVs are powered by fossil fuels and reduce tailpipe emissions by only 16 percent on average compared to full combustion engine vehicles, according to the IEA.
Moreover, as some of the world’s most influential corporations, automakers hold a disproportionate sway over transport legislation. A 2024 report by Influence Map details how negative lobbying by automakers has threatened climate progress. Over the past two years, Hyundai was one of a handful of automakers that opposed more stringent light-duty greenhouse gas emissions standards in the United States, according to the Influence Map report. Hyundai should use its leverage to support collective climate action instead of obstructing it.
The good news is that India’s national electrification efforts are progressing despite opposition from some automakers. India’s government has introduced a target that EVs comprise 30 percent of all vehicle sales by 2030. EV sales in India close to doubled in 2023, led by domestic automaker Tata. By setting an ambitious electrification target for its sales in India, Hyundai could contribute to India’s emissions reduction momentum rather than slowing it down.
Around the world, we are witnessing the intensification of the climate crisis. From catastrophic wildfires to choking air pollution, Hyundai and other automakers can no longer afford to overlook the consequences of fossil fuel burning.
Hyundai and its peers must adopt an approach to emissions reduction that drives forward electrification efforts in India and other Global South countries. Automakers can help to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis by pledging to halt the sale of combustion engine vehicles, including hybrids, across all markets. It is time to end the double standards in emissions reduction and to accelerate electrification worldwide.