Greta Thunberg Refuses to Fly Commercial, but Does She Have a Car?

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been very open about her preferred methods of transportation, and has always opting for the most eco-friendly travel routes.

In 2019, at the age of 16, she traveled from Europe to New York on a zero-emissions sailboat to give a speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

She has also claimed she has not flown on a commercial plane since 2015 (she was placed on a flight from Israel to Paris after she was detained in international waters while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza), and has tweeted about her train travels?

But does Greta have a car? Here is everything she has said about vehicles, and public transportation.

In Sweden, where Greta has lived her entire life, the age to get a driver license is 18, which Greta turned in 2021. That said, there is no evidence that the activist owns her own car.

A 2019 profile of Greta by GQ notes that Scenes from the Heart, a memoir written by Thunberg's mother Malena Ernman, mentions that the family had an electric car. In the scene, she described the Ernman-Thunberg family driving back to Stockholm from London after a family vacation.

The family has not confirmed what model of electric car they own, but in February 2020, Bristol Live reported that Greta was seen being picked up at a train station in Bristol, England, in a red Nissan LEAF.

“We are delighted Greta’s chosen to travel in a 100 percent electric Nissan LEAF," a spokesperson told Bristol Live at the time. However, it's unclear if Thunberg or her family owned that car or if it belonged to someone else.

In the summer of 2019, Greta arrived in New York City via a highly publicized zero-emissions yacht journey across the Atlantic Ocean. She arranged to travel by boat in lieu of flying, since she has boycotted the aviation industry due to its high emissions.

She then traveled around North America for a few months, speaking about the climate crisis and attending environmental protests. And during that time, her main mode of transportation was an electric car given to her by Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom she had met earlier in the year in Vienna.

Schwarzenegger's rep confirmed to Car and Driver that the car the actor provided Greta with was a Tesla Model 3.

It's unclear if the car was a loaner or a permanent gift; however, the activist has been seen using public transportation on multiple occasions. For instance, she has taken the New York City subway as well as train rides throughout Europe, both of which she took right after her long transatlantic boat rides.

Despite her staunch anti-plane stance, Greta was deported from Israel and flown back to Sweden via Paris on June 10, 2025, after a failed attempt to deliver aid to Gaza.

"We were 12 peaceful volunteers sailing on a civilian ship carrying humanitarian aid on international waters. We did not break laws. We did nothing wrong," Greta told reporters after she flew into Paris, according to Reuters.