The concept of a circular economy is gaining in importance as a key tool in the automotive industry’s quest for carbon neutrality.

Now more than ever, automakers and suppliers need to reduce the environmental impact of material sourcing, shorten supply chains, reduce waste, cut energy consumption, and minimise their environmental impact through careful lifecycle analysis. When vehicles are not properly managed, throughout the supply chain as well as at end-of-life, the global environmental impact is high and the socio-economic impact event higher – the European economy alone loses out on millions of tonnes of useful materials and resulting potential prosperity.

With a tightening of the European Union’s end-of life vehicles (ELV) directive on the horizon as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) calling for urgent global action by all partnerships - consumers as well as business - there is a clear burden as well as enormous benefit on our industry to tackle climate change while keeping a healthy economy. Necessity breeds opportunity and innovation - as well as the environmental benefits there is a growing business case for adoption of a circular economy.

To explore the challenges and opportunities this presents automakers, suppliers, and other stakeholders in the world’s mobility engineering ecosystems, FISITA hosted a forum in partnership with EDF dedicated to the circular economy, featuring experts from EDF, Ford, Renault, and Toyota.

This output paper summarises the key findings from that event, which we invite you to consider and use as the foundation of fruitful discussions with your industry peers.

EDF: Carmen Munoz Dormoy, Solene Le Bourdiec, Bernard Maestrali, Yves Schlumberger; Ford Motor Company: Debbie Mielewski; Renault Group: Sophie Schmidtlin; Toyota Motor Manufacturing France: David Fillon; FISITA: Rémi Bastien, Martin Kahl