World’s biggest carmakers to build 400m more vehicles than 1.5C climate target will allow

Cars on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Toyota was expected to produce 63m more petrol and diesel cars than is sustainable, followed by Volkswagen with 43m and Hyundai with 39m. Photograph: Sergio Dionisio/AAP

The world’s biggest carmakers plan to build about 400m more diesel and petrol cars than what is sustainable to contain global heating, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the University of Applied Sciences of the Industry in Bergisch Gladbach and Greenpeace Germany compared the rate at which the world needed to embrace zero-emissions vehicles with the rate at which major car companies were planning to produce various models.