For The Verge: EVs ‘are not enough’: Polestar and Rivian urge more drastic climate action
At this point, just about every car company has committed to spending the next few years adding electric and hybrid vehicles to their fleets or eventually phasing out internal combustion engines entirely.
But in a new climate study released this week, EV startups Rivian and Polestar have a more dire message: electrification alone will not be enough.
A new climate report from global management consulting firm Kearney commissioned by the two automakers indicates that, despite a massive rollout of new EVs and hybrids in the coming years, the global automotive industry is still “far off track” on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a way that can meet targets set by the Paris agreement. And that does not even account for emissions from the hundreds of millions of new gasoline and diesel cars due out over the coming years and decades as the EV pivot takes place, which Greenpeace Germany called out in a November report.
The biggest problem, the Kearney report says, is that automakers have been primarily focused on reducing tailpipe emissions that come from their car fleets via electrification. And it’s true that this is the primary driver of greenhouse gas emissions from the automotive sector.
