Greenpeace slams Hyundai Motor’s green car strategy

THE Seoul branch of Greenpeace has slammed South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor, claiming that its green car strategy falls short of global movements on climate change.

In a statement published on Friday, the NGO argued that Hyundai’s plans to raise both production and sales capacity of electric vehicles to 850,000 per year by 2025 accounts for only 10.3 per cent of its 2018 sales. Despite the global efforts to curb carbon emissions, the carmaker is still producing diesel vehicles, both large and small, it added.

The statement came a day after the carmaker unveiled a five-year plan to expand its electric car lineups to 16 models under the Hyundai and Genesis marques, setting the sales target of zero emission cars at 560,000 units a year. Its sister company Kia Motor also plans to raise its target to 850,000 year. Under the plan, Hyundai Motor Group aims to become global number two green carmaker, it added.

The plan sounds ineffective, Greenpeace said, urging Hyundai to turn its entire production line-up into zero emission cars no later than 2028.

The organisation also questioned Hyundai’s responsibility as a global carmaker, saying it is passively responding to global efforts to cut down carbon emissions and urging it to take radical steps to keep up with the industrial shift to emission free automobiles. Volkswagen, the world’s largest carmaker, vowed to stop sales of cars with internal combustion engines by 2040, it said.

A diesel-version of sport utility vehicles to be launched by Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis next month shows how the carmaker is “reversing” the global trend of going green, it said, adding that its strategy of keeping large diesel cars as the main products would undermine its global competitiveness.