Some of Australia's most popular car brands have scored poor marks in a report ranking traditional automakers on their climate credentials and progress on delivering low-emission vehicles.
The report, released by Greenpeace East Asia on Thursday, gave low scores to top-selling brands Toyota, Kia and Hyundai for their progress on measures such as electric car sales and commitments to phase out fossil fuel vehicles.
But two luxury vehicle brands blitzed the Greenpeace rankings, with Mercedes-Benz and BMW earning the top two spots, even though their electric car sales fell short of those from newer firms Tesla and BYD.
The scorecard comes as the federal government prepares to draft a fuel-efficiency standard to encourage automakers to import more low-emission vehicles.
The Greenpeace report, called the Auto Environmental Guide 2023, ranked the world's 15 top-selling traditional car manufacturers on measures including ending sales of internal combustion vehicles, carbon cuts to their supply chain and efficient use of resources.
Mercedes-Benz narrowly beat BMW for top spot, edging out the competition with higher scores for its ambitious target to end fuel car sales globally by 2040, even though BMW sold a higher percentage of electric vehicles last year.
SAIC, which represents brands such as MG, ranked in third place thanks to its record high electric car sales of three in every 10 vehicles, but lost points for failing to put a deadline on petrol car sales.
At the other end of the list, Suzuki ranked in last place with no electric vehicles sold last year, and the most popular vehicle brand in Australia, Toyota, also ranked poorly, scoring 13th place.
The Japanese brand received poor marks due to low electric vehicle sales, at just 0.24 per cent of its fleet according to the report, and a failure to set firm goals for ending the sale of petrol vehicles.
Aussie favourites Kia and Hyundai also shared ninth spot on the list due to a rising share of SUV sales that used greater resources.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Joe Rafalowicz said the report underlined the need for the government to introduce an ambitious fuel-efficiency standard that set a pollution cap on fleets and incentivised automakers to make and import low-emission cars.
Mr Rafalowicz said rising fuel prices and greater consumer demand for electric cars underlined the need for change.
"Australia is considered an '(internal combustion engine) hold-out market' due to our lack of fuel-efficiency standards," he said.
"We call on ministers (Chris) Bowen and (Catherine) King to ensure a (standard) is implemented quickly and is robust enough to have a real impact on transport emissions."
The federal government pledged to introduce a fuel-efficiency standard at the launch of the National Electric Vehicle Strategy in April this year, and completed a six-week consultation into the issue.
Ms King said the government hoped to have "an exposure draft of the legislation available by the end of the year".
