As gearheads and auto industry suits streamed into the Los Angeles Convention Center Saturday for the LA Auto Show, they found themselves in the middle of a scene out of Squid Games. Demonstrators clad in the Netflix show’s red jumpsuits and black guard masks splayed across the showroom floor like victims in a deadly game of red light, green light.
The die-in, staged by activists from the climate advocacy groups Mighty Earth and Youth Climate Strike LA, was meant to call out the oft-overlooked dirty underbelly of clean transportation—the electric vehicle supply chain.
The EV supply chain, which includes everything from mineral mining to metal smelting and battery manufacturing, generates 35 to 50 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than that of gas-powered vehicles, according to a February report from EV makers Rivian and Polestar.
While the lifetime emissions of EVs are much lower, the report argues they’re still deficient. It estimates that EV producers need to reduce their supply chain emissions 81 percent by 2032 to help achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “Everyone just thinks, well, they’re not using gasoline anymore. Problem solved,” says Matthew Groch, a senior director at Mighty Earth. “Going electric is really just the start.”
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