Tesla and Mercedes-Benz ranked highest in a new study released by Amnesty International that looks at automakers' work to improve the human rights issues around battery production.
But there's still plenty for them to improve.
As electric vehicles rise in popularity and market share, so too has concern about the environmental and human rights impacts of mining the metals needed to produce EV batteries.
🗣️ Which of these factors is your biggest obstacle to purchasing an EV?
🔘 Cost concerns 💸
🔘 Range concerns 🪫
🔘 Performance concerns 😓
🔘 Already switched 😎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
Metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium, for example, may be mined in countries that have few human rights regulations. Amnesty International's Recharge for Rights report outlines how well car brands "seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts directly linked to their operations or services by their business impacts."
The report covers how well companies are doing to track where the minerals and metals in their batteries come from and how they're produced.
Tesla ranked second out of 13 brands in the study. But, according to Amnesty International, Tesla still falls short of adequately demonstrating its diligence when looking into the human rights impacts of its batteries.
Having said that, it scored far higher than brands such as Hyundai and Geely Motors.
Tesla participates in a new battery passport program, according to Electrek, that helps map the origin of all the materials that go into its batteries. More of this kind of transparency will help raise its scores.
The Recharge for Rights report suggests that car brands can improve their human rights due diligence rankings by doing the legwork to examine how and where the metals in the batteries are produced and to take steps to investigate any human rights violations.
Also, to improve transparency, companies need to do a better job of publicly disclosing what they discover when examining their supply chains.
The car makers falling far behind in the study "need to work harder and faster to show that human rights isn't just a fluff phrase but an issue they take seriously," as Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard told Wired.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
