Ranking
10 of 18
Comparison
(10) in 2024
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 inadequate progress on sustainable and equitable supply chains. Due to marginal improvements across several of the subsections of the Leaderboard, Hyundai has been able to maintain its position as the highest scoring East Asian automaker overall. However, the competition has become more intense, with Geely closely following behind and even surpassing Hyundai in the climate and environment section.
In the climate and environment section, Hyundai achieved a notable score increase in the General subsection. However, Hyundai is one of the very few automakers evaluated that, for two years running, has not improved its score at all with regards to steel and aluminum decarbonization. The lack of progress on steel decarbonization is particularly disappointing, given the company’s unique position as an automaker with its own steel subsidiary, which provides Hyundai with a clear opportunity to become an industry leader on clean steel. Joining the SteelZero and First Movers Coalition initiatives would be a logical first step towards this goal.
On human rights, Hyundai’s progress has been mixed, with considerable improvements on general human rights due diligence and transition minerals standing in contrast to no progress at all on Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and a severe drop in performance on workers’ rights.
Key Findings
- Improved its score in the General Fossil Free and Environmentally Sustainably Supply Chains subsection due to releasing a more detailed carbon neutrality roadmap, providing additional details with regards to how the company manages environmental risks and impacts in its supply chain and above average scores against the new deforestation indicators.
- Scores points for investing in the use of scrap aluminium and steel and continues to be one of just two automakers that disclose the total quantity of recycled steel and aluminum used in its annual production cycle.
- Has increased the amount of information it discloses regarding its human rights due diligence process, including the results of monitoring activities, as well as providing statistical data on the number of suppliers assessed and audited, and on corrective action plans. Notably, however, the company still does not have a grievance and remedy mechanism for its supply chain.
- Now provides more detail on its transition minerals risk assessment and due diligence processes, including its mapping efforts, but does not disclose the results of these efforts, the salient transition mineral risks it has identified or information on smelters and refiners in its supply chain.
- Has still made no progress whatsoever on Indigenous Peoples’ rights, remaining at the bottom of the rankings jointly with many other laggards.
- Workers’ rights score has dropped by 7 percentage points, due to watering down its commitments in this area and regressing on the level of disclosure of salient workers’ rights risks it has identified in its supply chain. This is particularly troublesome in light of recent allegations of workers’ rights abuses in Hyundai’s supply chain.
Score Breakdown
Fossil-Free & Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chains
General
Steel
Aluminum
Batteries
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* 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.