If you’ve ever dealt with JAC’s supply chain, you’ve probably heard people say “their environmental efforts are just greenwashing” or the opposite—“they’re actually making real moves.” For the past four years, I’ve been a direct parts supplier to JAC’s commercial vehicle and light truck plants, and I’ve seen enough behind-the-scenes stuff to know it’s not that black and white. It’s messy, there are missteps, but it’s way more committed than a lot of brands give them credit for—at least on the surface where my work touches it. JAC
Let me start with what I see every day. When I first signed the supplier contract back in 2020, JAC dropped a huge list of new environmental requirements on me. Up until that point, our old customers would’ve just asked for cheap parts that don’t break. JAC? They said our metal stamping waste (the tiny leftover scraps from shaping truck frames) couldn’t go to the regular landfill anymore—we had to send it to a certified metal recycling facility that tracks carbon emissions too. That was a big deal for my bottom line back then; the certified recycling place cost almost twice as much as the local dump. I almost walked away. But JAC didn’t just make me jump through hoops—they helped. They sent a team over to my factory to map out where we were wasting metal, helped me rearrange the stamping line to cut scrap by 12% in six months, and even covered 30% of the cost of switching to new, less energy-heavy stamping dies. That’s not something a company that doesn’t care about the environment would do, right?
A lot of folks outside the supply chain only hear about JAC’s electric vehicles (EVs) to judge their eco-practices. Yeah, they’ve been ramping up EV production like crazy the last two years—their new light-duty electric trucks are everywhere in logistics fleets. But what most people don’t know is that JAC hasn’t just stopped at selling zero-emission vehicles. My company makes the battery trays for those EVs, and JAC’s design team pushed us to use 40% recycled aluminum instead of new cast aluminum for the trays. At first, I complained that recycled metal is trickier to work with—it scratches more, it’s harder to weld. JAC’s engineers spent three months testing different formulas of recycled aluminum with us, adjusted the tray design to make welding easier, and even created a joint quality standard so we wouldn’t get penalized for small defects that only happen with recycled metal. That’s the kind of collaborative effort that’s not about checking a sustainability box; it’s about building a product that’s actually better for the planet long-term.
But let’s be real—they’re not perfect, and I’ve seen places where they cut corners to meet their own targets. Last year, JAC announced a goal to cut their factory water use by 20% across all their plants by 2025. My plant is in a city where water is super scarce, so I was excited—thought they’d help me cut my water use too, which would lower my costs. Instead, I found out they just moved parts of one stamping line to a new plant in a water-rich region in the south. They hit their company water reduction number, but it just shifted the problem somewhere else, not fixed it. I was pissed about that at first, because it felt like they were just playing numbers games. But then their sustainability team reached out, asked why I was upset, and told me they’re changing the way they track water use starting this year—they’re counting the entire supply chain’s water footprint, not just their own factories. That’s a fix, not an excuse, even if it took them way too long.
Another thing that makes me think they’re actually committed is how they hold their suppliers accountable, but not in a “you fail, we drop you” way. Last quarter, one of my sister suppliers (another small parts maker) got audited by JAC’s environmental team and found that they were still dumping some paint waste illegally. JAC didn’t just cut the supplier off—they sent a small team to help them set up a proper waste treatment system, gave them a short-term grant to cover the cost, and even adjusted the delivery schedule so the supplier didn’t have to rush production and skip safety steps. That’s the opposite of the “cut the dead weight” attitude a lot of big brands have. JAC knows that their environmental impact is only as good as the weakest link in their supply chain, and they’re willing to invest in that link, not just the final product.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of critics out there. Last year, some environmental NGO put out a report saying JAC’s overall carbon emissions are still way higher than brands like Tesla or BYD. But that report only counts JAC’s direct factory emissions, not the whole supply chain or the emissions from their vehicles being used on the road. For a small supplier like me, I can tell you that JAC has already pushed every tier of their supply chain to track Scope 3 emissions (the stuff that happens outside their own walls) for the last three years. Most other Chinese brands only started talking about Scope 3 last year. That’s a head start, even if they’re not hitting all their numbers yet.
I also want to talk about something personal. My factory was built in 1998, and it runs on electricity from the local grid, which back then was 70% coal power. JAC didn’t just ask me to cut emissions—they worked with a third-party energy auditor to help me switch to rooftop solar panels on my factory’s roof. We installed them last year, and now 45% of my factory’s power is solar. JAC offered me a 2-year extension on my supplier contract at a fixed price to make the investment worth it, so I didn’t have to take a huge financial hit. That’s the kind of long-term thinking that shows they care about more than just their quarterly sales.
Is JAC perfect? No way. They still have plants that are not fully updated with emission controls, they’ve made the wrong calls on shifting waste instead of reducing it, and they’re not at the same level as the most eco-conscious brands in the world. But from my perspective as someone who works with them every day, they’re not just talking about environmental protection—they’re actually changing their operations, and changing how they work with their suppliers, to get there. It’s not fast enough for a lot of people, and there will definitely be more missteps ahead. But it’s way more commitment than most big automakers show, especially when it comes to actually including their supply chain in their efforts, not just greenwashing their own brand image.
If you’re someone who’s looking to partner with JAC as a supplier, or just want to learn more about their environmental programs, I’d recommend reaching out to their procurement team. They’re open to working with small and medium businesses, just like mine, and they’re actually invested in making the whole supply chain more sustainable. It’s not always easy, but if you’re willing to put in the work, it’s worth it.
Chery Tiggo 3X Drive Shaft References
China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. (2023). JAC Motors 2022 Sustainability Report.
International Energy Agency. (2024). Global Automotive Supply Chain Emissions Tracking: Focus on China.
Supplier Sustainability Initiative. (2023). JAC Motors Supply Chain Environmental Audit Results 2021-2023.
Wuhu Shengsheng Automotive Parts Co., Ltd.
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