Column: Why we did a podcast series about carbon neutrality

Is the auto industry to blame for climate change? Not entirely, but it's clearly had a role. Automotive News presents 'Driving to Zero,' a new limited series podcast on the industry's efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

September 10, 2023 07:13 AM

Executive Editor of Automotive News

JACK HALLAUER

Brian Calka, center, DTE Energy’s vice president of renewable energy sales and project development, talks with “Driving to Zero” Host Jake Neher, left, and Automotive News Executive Editor Jamie Butters, right, at DTE’s Lapeer Solar Park in Lapeer, Mich.

Driving through the plains of Ontario always reminds me of my home state of Iowa. A lot of it is agricultural. and the road can be numbingly straight.

But as Jake Neher and Jack Hallauer — two Michigan native colleagues — and I headed toward the Toronto exurb of Brampton to tour a Magna International plant, I experienced something I never felt in Iowa: a burning in my throat from wildfires.

This past summer, locales from Chicago to New York were canceling outdoor activities because of the Ontario forest fires and the heavy smoke hanging over large swaths of North America.

Automotive News presents 'Driving to Zero,' a new limited series podcast on the industry's efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

A 10.4-acre living roof atop one of the buildings in the massive Ford Rouge Center manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Mich.

They said it ...

"There's an environmental story about every single bit and bob that goes into every single automobile. That all has to be harvested and collected and transported. … [It's] all of the energy that [the factory] consumed to make the car, it's all of the people traveling to and from the plant, all of the materials traveling to and from the plant." — Chris Wells, author and professor of environmental studies at MaCalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

"My concern is with the lack of urgency. We don't have time. And it's great that the auto industry is trying to figure out how to scale up their EV production. But it needs to happen much more quickly than it's happening." — Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, sustainable communities program director at GreenLatinos

"Unfortunately, I've been watching this industry for a long time, and they don't always keep their promises. … This is the Pinocchio industry. They don't tell the truth." — Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign

"I was really clear, the only story that mattered is a headline of, 'GM believes in an all-electric future,' and that, if GM wasn't willing to go that far, my question was, is that painting a big enough picture that we need to be painting about what GM really believes about what the future is going to look like?" — Ray Wert, former head of storytelling and advanced technology communications for General Motors

"We have to be realistic about this and understand the goal is to reduce net CO2 emissions, it's not to convert everybody to one particular kind of car. That's the means to the end. It's the end itself that matters the most." — Gill Pratt, chief scientist of Toyota Motor Corp. and CEO of Toyota Research Institute

"Now that Magna has really taken a front seat, customers are pushing, investors are pushing, employees are pushing, I think it's become more and more of our everyday language and discussions. … And the last two to three years — particularly the last year — has been a significant incline in trying to meet the sustainability requirements." — Paul Rodrigues, general manager of Magna International's Plastcoat division in Brampton, Ontario

"I think it's also a business risk issue right now, both for the procurement of energy and making sure that you've got what you need to operate into the near-term future." — Ahmed Elganzouri, global director of sustainability and energy for Magna International

"There needs to be respect from federal government experts dealing with the industry and vice versa. And that doesn't happen overnight. You have to develop those relationships. You have to develop those set of values. And without that set of values and developing those relationships, you cannot be successful." — Margo Oge, former director of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, chief architect of the landmark 2012 deal with automakers to double fuel fleetwide efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2025

"How do we achieve that holy grail of solid-state [batteries] with faster charging and greater safety? I used to point to the Manhattan Project and say, look what massive resources do. Look at COVID vaccines. Something that everyone said would be impossible to do in 18 months got done in under a year. Massive resources produce breakthroughs." — Elaine Buckberg, senior fellow at the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, former chief economist at General Motors

"What we have seen is that type of messaging is really being picked up by [automakers'] suppliers. And not just their Tier 1s. We're talking … the entire value chain of the activity set. They're looking to decarbonize their electric usage at the same time. Many of them are saying, 'Gosh, if GM is doing this, I better get on board, too.' " — Brian Calka, vice president of renewable energy sales and project development for DTE Energy, an electric utility company in Detroit that has been working with auto companies to increase green energy generation

Those fires were not global warming; a hot day in August is not climate change. But the accumulation of years of progressively hotter temperatures throughout the world provides ample evidence of a real problem. In the words of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact."

Is the auto industry to blame for climate change? Not entirely, but it's clearly had a role in the human behavior that has propelled the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to unprecedented levels.

As podcast producer Neher put it in one episode of "Driving to Zero," a new limited series podcast on the auto industry's efforts to achieve carbon neutrality:

"Here in the United States, there are three sectors that contribute far and away the most to CO2 emissions: transportation, energy and industry. As of 2021, they represented 28 percent, 25 percent and 23 percent of U.S. emissions respectively. Three industries — three-quarters of our carbon emissions as a country. And if you were to draw a Venn diagram of those three sectors, the auto industry would sit right smack dab in the middle. And experts say that's why it's critical for automotive companies to take a lead role in cutting carbon."

In fact, automakers and their suppliers are spending billions and billions of dollars to reduce carbon emissions — to make the industry sustainable into and through whatever climate change may come. That doesn't just mean putting in bigger air conditioners in cars. It means addressing the sources of global warming, which is excess carbon emissions throughout the value chain and the life cycle of the vehicles that the industry produces.

Government role

One might think that a massive transformation like this would be the product of government mandates. And it is — in Europe and in China. In the U.S., while the federal government – and some states — support clean manufacturing and zero-emission vehicles, the influence is almost all in the form of positive reinforcement. Carrots, not sticks.

Not that the government isn't a stakeholder or that it doesn't have a role. But the demand for automakers to change what they make and how they make it has come very little from regulators and primarily from investors, consumers, neighboring communities where factories are located and the employees who work there.

The auto industry is in a difficult transition period from decades of mostly profitable production and distribution of gasoline-burning vehicles to an industry predominantly defined by battery-powered electric vehicles, most of which don't yet generate a profit.

The companies can see the demand for EVs that will truly meet consumers' needs. EVs need to get from point A to point B. They need to be stylish and fashionable. And they need an economic value. The economics aren't all there yet, but if and when the cost of materials and production to make an EV matches or even gets close to that of a comparable gasoline powered vehicle, the consumers will swiftly pursue the opportunity to spend less of our most precious commodity — time — filling up the gas tank and getting the oil changed.

Yes, there are time-related challenges in the current state of the EV industry: most notably around charging — and the lack of availability or reliability. That is a problem that has to be solved — and one that is being addressed.

Why this?

I know there will be readers who are outraged that Automotive News would be so "woke" as to report on carbon-neutrality efforts.

But keep in mind: We are not the ones investing hundreds of billions of dollars in carbon reduction. This is coming from the world's biggest automakers, the world's smallest automakers, the world's biggest suppliers and any number of their smaller peers. It's also coming from consumers and, yes, from governments.

We are reporting on this because it's a major trend in the industry. Our job is to report what is happening, so that you all know it and can act accordingly. And there's a lot happening, which is good, because there are a lot of hurdles to clear. In battery technology, in battery manufacturing, in mining and refining, in the powering of the factories and vehicles.

We as humans can reduce the damage that we are doing to our planet, and the auto industry is actively engaged in that process. This podcast series is about explaining what the industry is doing, why it's doing it and how it's doing it. This is your peek behind the curtain. Enjoy.