During its use phase, an electric car has a significantly smaller carbon footprint than a combustion-powered car, but due to the energy-intensive production of, for example, battery cells and aluminium, the footprint in the upstream value chain threatens to become larger.
Without countermeasures, CO2 emissions from the supply chain would be on course to rise considerably, by more than a third by 2030. BMW Group will reverse this trend.
WE WANT TO REDUCE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT IN OUR SUPPLY CHAINS BY 20%
How are we going to make this happen? For the production of our latest-generation battery cells, we agreed with our suppliers to only use green energy. We are sourcing aluminium that’s produced with green electricity, for example from solar energy.
By 2030, only these two measures alone will save a total of 12.5 million tonnes of CO2. But that’s not all. Together with our suppliers, we’re minimizing our use of critical raw materials.
Our most cutting-edge e-motor does not require any rare earth elements. And we have to set an example ourselves.
That’s why the CO2 targets for our own production are the most ambitious of all.
BY 2030, WE WANT TO CUT OUR CO2 EMISSIONS BY 80% – MORE AMBITIOUS THAN THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT
But it’s about more than CO2. We want environmental and social standards to be respected at any stage of our supply chain. For example, we purchase cobalt and lithium straight from the mines for our battery cell suppliers to use. In this way, we create complete transparency in the origin and mining methods of the material.
We also aim to radically increase the share of secondary materials in our products. Such as recycled steel, plastics and aluminium. Finally, we’re planning a return system for battery cells. So critical raw materials can be recycled. That way, we will be able to deliver on our mission.
