Automakers Make Little Progress on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Third Clean Car Report
From SIRGE Coalition’s analysis of Lead the Charge’s third annual Auto Supply Chain Leaderboard:
Among right-based and sustainability indicators, the average score across the the auto industry on Indigenous Peoples’ rights is 6%. While a two percent increase from 2024, this is still by far the most underperforming area for automakers three years running.
Companies that ranked on Indigenous Peoples’ rights were Tesla (26%), Mercedes (21%), Ford (20%), BMW (12%), GM (11%), Volkswagen (6%), Renault (6%), Volvo (4%), and Geely (2%); Ford was the only company that showed signifcant improvement (12 percentage points).
Half of automakers had no policy to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including Toyota, Stellantis, SAIC, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, Honda, GAC, and BYD.
“No company is yet demonstrating with concrete and complete evidence whether and if so, how, they are operationalising their commitments on Indigenous Peoples’ rights throughout their supply chains,” said the report.
The leaderboard examined critical indicators to understand the harm and enduring on-the-ground impacts that manufacturing and supply chain operations may have on Indigenous Peoples, such as:
Explicit commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Indigenous Peoples’ Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC);
Processes to assess risk from violation to Indigenous Peoples’ rights;
Processes to prevent, mitigate, and account for violations of Indigenous Peoples’ FPIC; and
Readiness to investigate and remedy breaches of FPIC inclusive of impacted Indigenous Peoples.
Among several recommendations for automakers to move towards respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights readiness:
Full Commitment to Highest Standards of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights.
Operationalize and Report on FPIC.
Read the full SIRGE Coalition article and access the 2025 Lead the Charge Leaderboard.
