Sustainability Newsletter – April 2025

10 car brands have been fined a total of £77m for not revealing to consumers what percentage of their cars could be recycled at the end of the car’s life, and also not saying what percentage of recycled material is used in their cars.
The brands in question include Mercedes, which escaped a penalty after it admitted the collective policy to the Competition and Markets Authority. Others were less fortunate, including BMW, Ford, JLR, Peugeot, Citroën, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Renault, though the latter hadn’t withheld the information about the quantity of recycled material. The offences took place between 2002 and 2017, during which time the brands formed a collective that agreed not to compete over advertising the percentage of recyclable material in their cars. Full details of the CaMA investigation can be found here. Following a parallel investigation and additional round of EU fines the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition Teresa Ribera said, “We will not tolerate cartels of any kind, and that includes those that suppress customer awareness and demand for more environmental-friendly products.”

Tesla meanwhile hasn’t been far from the headlines for any number of reasons but turns out to have made almost 30 per cent of its net income in the last quarter of 2024 from selling carbon credits to car companies still producing too many petrol and diesel cars to meet Government quotas, according to various sources. See Rory’s previous explainer video on the topic here. Anyway, the company’s credit income was up 54 per cent year-on-year, against a wider backdrop of falling profits. Since 2017 Tesla has made $10bn from selling carbon credits to other car brands.

Sustainability plaudits meanwhile go to Audi this month for establishing a financially viable closed-loop life cycle for steel from its cars, with other materials to follow. At the end of the car’s life, the scrap steel will be turned into “high-quality” raw material and rolled back into the automotive supply chain, while the secondary material will be added to a “digital material account” which parts suppliers can access as part of a tendering process. The end result means accredited Audi suppliers using reliably high-quality recycled steel raw materials for their parts, which then end up back in the cars. It should also provide a stable, knowable pricing structure for the material as it will be kept in a controlled environment, rather than Audi suppliers being forced onto the open market, with its price fluctuations. And there may well be beneficial protective measures for Audi in doing this, to defend against Rule of Origin regulations and global trade tariffs, both of which place an extra cost on whole cars, and components used in their manufacture, when crossing borders during manufacture and markets.

In related tariff news (you knew it was coming) one positive response to the new American trade policies could be an acceleration in production for electric cars here in the UK. This according to a report by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) cited in an article on Edie, the sustainability news platform.
In it the IPPR estimates more than 25,000 direct jobs (of a total of 263,000) are at risk in the UK’s car manufacturing industry due to their exposure to US exports due to be hit by President Trump’s tariffs. If the UK car industry wants to safeguard the at-risk jobs, most of which are at luxury brands like Jaguar Land Rover, the body says it should decrease its exposure by focusing on other markets where there is demand for electric vehicles. To underline the potential opportunity the IPPR cites data showing global EV export values increased by 740 per cent between 2018 and 2022, any slice of this very valuable pie potentially a huge boost to UK manufacturing.

• Sustainability newsletter – March 2025 | Climate crisis, policy proposals and big changes at Bentley – is it too late for the car industry to become more sustainable?
• Sustainability newsletter – February 2025 | Transatlantic divide on sustainability grows, UK charging and battery manufacturing gets a boost and Audi in a muddle • Sustainability newsletter – January 2025 | 2025 looks set to be the year of the affordable EV • Sustainability newsletter – December 2024 | Cornish Lithium’s UK sourced raw materials for electric car batteries and its wider role in carbon reduction • Sustainability newsletter – November 2024 | The Autumn Budget, sales of electric vehicles, sustainable materials and planning for the future • Sustainability newsletter – October 2024 | Industry asks government to make EVs more affordable in name of Net Zero and how sustainability works as a selling point • Sustainability newsletter – September 2024 | Road charging for electric cars, UK’s car manufacturers clean up their act and VW explores hemp-based bio interiors • Sustainability newsletter – August 2024 | Is stimulating electric car sales ‘green’ and how improved charging infrastructure is helping with the great summer getaway • Sustainability newsletter – July 2024 | Hidden carbon cost of tech, Volvo pushes for more recycled plastics and Renault secures greener supply chain for EV batteries • Sustainability newsletter – June 2024 | Farewell chrome plating, bravo for Renault’s recycled interiors and a cheer for the … circular economy for recycled tyres • Sustainability newsletter – May 2024 | Lithium is key in the production of electric car batteries, but where does it all come from and at what cost? • Sustainability newsletter – March 2024 | The importance of renewable energy in making sure electric cars really are the green choice, and one Dutch couple’s mission to prove it! • Sustainability newsletter – January 2024 | French act on heavy SUVs and embedded CO2 of imported electric cars, BYD plans European factory and Nio opens battery swapping centres • Sustainability newsletter – December 2024 | Vauxhall electrifies Britain’s streets, a second life for electric car batteries and recycled Alcantara seat fabric combines luxury and sustainability • Sustainability newsletter – November 2023 | Costs for EV batteries fall, funding for UK-sourced lithium project, GM goes renewable and Lynk & Co commits to life cycle CO2 audits • Sustainability newsletter – October 2023 | Costs for EV batteries fall, funding for UK-sourced lithium project, GM goes renewable and Lynk & Co commits to life cycle CO2 audits • Sustainability newsletter – September 2023 | Erin Baker shares her thoughts on the UK's changing net zero targets and delaying the 2030 ban for new petrol and diesel cars. • Sustainability newsletter – August 2023 | Zapmap reports increased charger installations, Lime's e-mobility revolution and Nissan's autonomous driving • Sustainability newsletter – July 2023 | Public charging network expands, hydrogen back on the agenda and choosing green tyres • Sustainability newsletter – June 2023 | BMW helps electrify the UK’s national parks and Kia ditches leather across its range of cars • Sustainability newsletter – May 2023 | What upholstery will you be choosing for your next car - leather or pleather? • Sustainability newsletter – April 2023 | Polestar’s ‘moonshot’ for a zero emissions car and a look into synthetic fuels as a possible lifeline for internal combustion classics • Sustainability newsletter – February 2023 | Our regular sustainability round-up continues with a look at some new recycled materials this month, all of which could be in your car soon • Sustainability newsletter – January 2023 | Eco awareness is driving more and more car buying decisions for a variety of reasons -here we celebrate those doing it right!