Car Product Carbon Footprint Series Report 3｜VOLVO Average Carbon Footprint is High, Are Global Climate Goals Off Track?

In 2025, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) and GreenJiangnan,together with nine other environmental organizations,jointly Notably, Volvo Cars vehicles accounted for over 183,000 tons of carbonemissions,with 4,101 snapshots photographed in total.Its average carbon To accelerate low-carbon transformation of China’s automotive sector andprovide consumers with more environmentally sustainable choices, the eleven Big Data and AI Enable the Development of an Automotive The global automotive industry continues to thrive, delivering significantmobility benefits while generating substantial carbon emissions. Although the Researchby the China Automotive Data Co.,Ltd.2 indicates that,for passenger vehicles, carbon emissions from the raw material acquisition stage,primarily driven by steel and aluminum production, are 10 to 15 times higher Encouragingly, many steel and aluminum producers have already developedlow-carbon product offerings. However, limited demand from automakers has To address these obstacles, under the guidance of the China Forum ofEnvironment Journalists, Blue Map and the China Products Carbon FootprintFactors Database (CPCD) jointly developed the “Product Carbon Scan” tool. Based on this tool, IPE and Green Jiangnan (PECC), together with ShandongEnvironmental Protection Foundation, Green Qilu, Airman, Green Anhui, Green Fingertips". Launched jointly by China Forum of Environment Journalists andIPE in 2018, this initiative closely aligns with the theme "Beautiful China Starts As of February 25, 2026,over 280,000 snapshots have been taken in 154cities.These data present a distinctive“Street Snap Automotive CarbonFootprint”landscape.To quantify the aggregate climate impact of the The Heatmap shows that Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Toyota andBMW rank among the top five brands in terms of carbon reduction potential. Based on the findings of the Vehicle Carbon Footprint Snap campaign, wehave sent open letters to Chinese and international automakers. In these letters, Why is the Vehicle Carbon Footprint of Volvo Cars relatively high? Netizen street snaps show that Volvo Cars ranks 16th in the "Street SnapCarbon Reduction Potential". Calculated based on driving 150,000 kilometers In terms of street snap frequency, Volvo Cars vehicles across all models werecaptured a total of 4,101 times, ranking 17th among all brands. However, the Specifically: •Specifically,the XC60(plug-in hybrid),XC60(gasoline),and XC90(gasoline)—primarily midsize or large SUVs—have relatively high average •The XC90 (mid-to-large gasoline SUV) has an averagecarbonfootprintof 449.43gCO2e/kmin the photographed models, ranking fourth among •Although battery electric SUVs such as the EX30 and C40 have lowercarbonemissionsinthe driving phase, their life-cyclecarbonfootprint As part of its ambition to provide“the freedom to move in a personal,sustainable and safe way,”Volvo Cars has stated that its ambition to reach “net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040”is“consistent with the 1.5°Cpathway and the goals of the Paris Agreement.”The company has also set a Inits 2024 and 2025 annual reports,Volvo Cars disclosed furthercommitments, as well as measures already taken and planned, to reduce carbon Regarding the procurement of low-carbon steel, Volvo Cars stated6that ithas“an agreement with SSAB for the supply of high-quality recycled and near- In procuring low-carbon-emissions aluminium, Volvo Cars stated that, toqualify as approved smelters,“at least 90 per cent of the electricity used for “the carbon footprint of the aluminium ingots produced by smelters on ourapproved list are 50 to 75 per cent lower than the global average.”Volvo Cars In terms of material recycling and reuse, Volvo Cars disclosed in its 2024annual report that the share of closed-loop recycled aluminium in its operations steel recovery, Volvo Cars stated in its 2025 annual report that“scrap steelaccounts for around 75 per cent of the total waste generated.”To“capture Table 1 presents the low-carbon steel and aluminum emissions-reduction Table 1 Low-carbon steel and aluminum emissions-reduction measures for Despite the measures outlined above, data disclosed by Volvo Cars in its2024 annual report show that the share of recycled aluminum used in vehicle Meanwhile, Volvo Cars has stated that,“in order to minimise the use ofprimary materials and increase circularity,”it aims to use“25 per cent recycled •ES90, launched in 2025, is built with“approximately 30 per centrecycled aluminium”and“20 per cent recycled steel,”indicating a •EX60, scheduled for launch in 2026, has initsselect components“arecycled content of almost 100 per cent”. The vehicle wasdesignedwith a minimum of 27 per centof recycled content. However, thecompany has not disclosed vehicle-level shares of recycled steel andrecycled aluminium for the EX6015;•EX30 Cross Country (launched in 2025) and XC70 (launched in 2025):no publicly available data could be ident