Ranking
9 of 18
Comparison
(10) in 2025
Total Score
Environment
Human Rights
* Automotive sales data from Marklines. All figures are cumulative annual values for the year 2024. The data covers passenger vehicles only.
Summary
Hyundai continues to make steady but slow progress on sustainable and equitable supply chains, with an overall improvement of 2 percentage points in the Leaderboard. Nevertheless, this improvement has allowed the company to move up one place in the Leaderboard. Now in 9th place, it is one of only two East Asian companies to make the top half performing companies in the Leaderboard.
In the Climate and Environment section, Hyundai made notable progress in the battery subsection, increasing its score by six percentage points due to disclosing new initiatives on battery circularity, including a service agreement with Lithion in 2024 to advance EV battery recovery and recycling.
Despite this progress, Hyundai has failed to improve its performance on steel decarbonization for the third consecutive year. This continued inaction is particularly concerning as Hyundai is the only automaker with its own steelmaking subsidiary.
On human rights, Hyundai’s progress has been slow overall. Most notably, the company established a new public commitment to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, finally moving it away from 0% achievement in this subsection.
In contrast, Hyundai made no progress at all on General Human Rights or Responsible Transition Minerals Sourcing. This too differs significantly from the considerable progress the company achieved last year in both these areas, representing a marked loss of momentum. All in all, the company only managed a disappointing 1 percentage point improvement on human rights, causing the company to drop from 9th to 10th place.
Key Findings
- Appears to have dropped a previously disclosed supply chain emissions reduction target. The company’s 2045 carbon neutrality target and roadmap is still in place, but the company no longer discloses a quantitative interim target for Scope 3 Category 1 emissions, representing a major regression.
- Has updated several environmental and supply chain sustainability policies, including those related to deforestation, but has not set any time-bound or commodity-specific targets on deforestation.
- Disclosed lifecycle assessments for a number of EV models, but these lack disaggregated data on the embodied GHG emissions from the steel, aluminium, and batteries used in the vehicles. This represents a missed opportunity compared to industry peers that have provided more granular LCA data.
- Still fails to require suppliers to respect all human rights, and lacks a supply chain grievance mechanism.
- Describes a robust two-stage human rights risk identification process, and discloses plans to expand its supply chain risk identification beyond Tier 1.
- Has a strong overall supply chain monitoring system, and continues to be one of very few companies to disclose data about the number of suppliers assessed and audited, together with their tiers. Jointly with its subsidiary Kia, it is also now the only company to disclose the number of corrective action plans issued.
- Despite ongoing supply chain risk assessment and mapping efforts, is yet to disclose concrete information about the results of these activities
- Has taken first steps on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights by now including an express commitment to FPIC in both its Human Rights Policy and new Supply Chain Sustainability Management Policy.
- Marginally improved its score on workers’ rights in the supply chai by disclosing more information regarding identified salient supply chain workers’ rights risks.
Score Breakdown
Fossil-Free & Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains
General
Steel
Aluminum
Batteries
Compare by year
* InfluenceMap scores were applied as a multiplier to the total Fossil-free & Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains score. See methodology for further details.
Human Rights & Responsible Resourcing
General
Minerals
Indigenous' Rights
Workers' Rights
Compare by year
Supply Chain News & Progress
Latest on Hyundai
Supply chain transformation is a risk management imperative and opportunity for a competitive edge. Leading brands are already securing a first-mover advantage and leveraging their power to transform legacy supply chains into a force for good. The revolution is underway.
Illegal rare earth mining in Myanmar linked to supply chain of major automakers
A new report by Global Witness has documented the harmful impacts of illegal rare earth mining in Myanmar, linked to the supply chains of major automakers – including Volkswagen, Toyota, Tesla, Nissan, Ford and Hyundai.
Hyundai sued by Department of Labor over use of child labor and faces new prison labor allegations
Hyundai Motor Company, together with an auto parts plant and a labor recruiter, have been sued by the U.S. Department of Labor over the illegal use of child labor in Alabama. Reuters reported in 2022 that children, some as young as 12, worked for a Hyundai subsidiary and in other parts suppliers for the company in the Southern state.
A report by Bloomberg published the same month also names a supplier of Hyundai Motor Company as profiting from the forced labor of incarcerated workers in the U.S.
Hyundai Steel produces low-carbon, high-strength steel plates
Hyundai Steel says it has become the first steelmaker globally to produce high-strength steel plates by using an electric arc furnace, which helps reduce carbon emissions drastically during the whole process… part of the company’s carbon neutrality initiative, dubbed “Hy-Cube,” with a goal of switching completely to hydrogen-based steel production by 2030.
Pollution, child labour, workers’ rights violations and new coal-fired power plants in Hyundai-Kia’s supply chains
According to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Hyundai-Kia’s supply chains have been linked to child labour and workers’ rights violations. Reports also implicate Hyundai-Kia’s supply chains with air pollution and premature deaths in South Korea and environmental contamination in Indonesia.
Hyundai Motor Company also signed an MoU to purchase aluminium from Adaro in Indonesia, which would be powered by new coal-fired power plants.
Our Vision
The future is an automotive industry where all vehicles are made:
01 — Equitably
Respecting and advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, workers, and local communities throughout the supply chain.
02 — Sustainably
Preserving and restoring environmental health and biodiversity across supply chains, while reducing primary resource demand through efficient resource use and increased recycled content.
03 — Fossil-free
100% electric and made with a fossil fuel-free supply chain.
