October 13th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
In recent years, awareness about climate risks and the need to bolster sustainability has driven the auto industry to shift gears and take note of its environmental impact. But beyond talk about cutting down emissions, rolling out electric vehicles and going green in manufacturing, do consumers think auto brands are doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment?
Just 21% of consumers across 17 international markets think so, according to results of a recent YouGov survey.
The survey asks consumers about which industries they think are doing enough or not enough to minimize their impact on the environment. Hospitals/health services top the list (31%), followed by hotels (24%), online retailers and food/grocery manufacturers (23% each).
Consumers are least likely to say airlines (17%) are doing enough.
By country, what consumers feel about the auto industry’s efforts to minimize environmental impact
Automotive companies are doing enough
UAE accounts for the largest share of consumers who feel auto companies are doing enough to minimize environmental impact - nearly two in five (38%) consumers here say so. Less than a third (31%) of consumers in India and 29% of those in Hong Kong have the same opinion.
Singapore has the lowest proportion of consumers (13%) who feel auto companies are doing enough to reduce their environmental impact. Britain reports a three-percentage point lead (16%) over bottom-placed Singapore.
The US is in the middle of the pack, with 21% of consumers here holding a positive view of the auto industry’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact.
In Europe, Italy leads with a quarter (25%) of all consumers here saying auto companies are doing enough. In the Nordics, similar proportions of consumers in Sweden (18%) and Denmark (17%) are of this opinion as well.
Automotive companies are not doing enough
When it comes to consumers who feel auto companies aren’t doing enough to curb their environmental impact, a significant proportion of consumers across all our markets have this view.
Mexico leads (68%) with the largest share of consumers who feel auto companies aren’t doing enough. Singapore (65%) and France (64%) and Indonesia (64%) follow.
Nearly half (48%) of the consumers in the US say auto companies are falling short of doing enough to minimize their environmental impact. So do three in five (60%) consumers in Britain.
In Asia, Indians (55%) are the least likely to opine that auto companies aren’t doing enough and in Europe, consumers in Germany (52%) are the least likely to have this opinion.
As for the Nordics, less than half (48%) of Swedes say auto companies aren’t doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment and the figure in Denmark (53%) exceeds the halfway mark.
Danes account for the largest share of consumers (35%) across markets who don’t know whether auto companies are doing enough or not, while Indonesians account for the group (11%) that’s least likely to say so.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 2003 and 509 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in July 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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