FAQ

This platform assesses the 15 largest automakers globally by 2023 production, excluding China-based groups, due to methodological difficulties in assessing climate policy engagement in the region. The platform also includes key automotive industry groups representing the sector in key regions.

A complete guide to InfluenceMap’s methodology for assessing corporate climate policy engagement can be found here.

InfluenceMap has selected the most significant policies related to the decarbonization of road transport in regions where automakers are engaged. The platform is not intended to provide a conclusive list of existing road transport policies. InfluenceMap is constantly in the process of expanding coverage of road transport policies globally as new policies are proposed.

To define policy engagement, InfluenceMap relies on the 2013 Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy issued by the secretariat of the UNFCCC and the UNEP under the UN's Caring for Climate collaboration of the UN Global Compact. This document defines a list of corporate activities that constitute corporate climate engagement, covering direct and indirect tactics. These range across social media; public relations; sponsoring research; direct contact with regulators and elected officials; funding of campaigns and political parties; and participation in policy advisory committees.

While this platform features and assesses the company's forecasted vehicle production and production targets, these two metrics are not included in the performance band (score) issues to a company. This analysis and scoring are focused on an organization's publicly available comments, interactions, and influence on policy and legislation. It does not consider internal strategy (including emissions targets), activities, and performance of a company on climate change-related issues.

In calculating entities’ Performance Bands, Organization Scores and Engagement Intensities, InfluenceMap looks for evidence of engagement in every region in which said company operates which is covered by InfluenceMap’s database. However, the Automotive Climate Tool’s policy tracker tab highlights corporate policy engagement on transport emissions and production related policies in an expanding set of regions, currently including the US, EU, UK, and Australia . For that analysis, InfluenceMap only uses evidence relevant to the policy in question.

InfluenceMap's scoring process is policy neutral. It does not assess the quality of governmental policy but rather the positions of companies and industry groups relative to this policy. This is achieved by using the statements and ambitions of government-mandated bodies tasked to propose or implement climate policy as the benchmarks against which corporate and industry association policy positions are scored .