With the engagement of 30 global value chain players – the Circular Cars Initiative (CCI) – is rapidly accelerating the transition to circular manufacturing and business models within the automotive industry.

Context: The automotive industry, which currently contributes over 10% of industrial emissions, must embrace life cycle decarbonization to meet the goal embodied in the Paris Agreement’s net-zero target. To date, decarbonization has focused on electrifying vehicles. But electrification is not the sole answer to the decarbonization challenge. The automotive industry must also tackle emissions embedded in vehicle materials – which will grow in importance in tandem with electrification. The growing market share of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) – and the greener energy mix required to power them – will increase materials’ share of automotive life-cycle emissions in both relative and absolute terms. Therefore, the time to shift to circularity in automotive is now – when huge investments into the emerging electric mobility ecosystems are taken. Circular Economy measures, including vehicle sharing, smart charging, refurbishing, repurposing, and recycling, are effective measures to lower lifecycle environmental footprints and costs. However, creating business value from circularity is challenging for most solutions today, as they require further industry alignment and joint development of standards. Therefore, cross-value chain partnerships and collaboration are crucial.

Our approach: The Circular Cars Initiative (CCI) connects stakeholders from the entire automotive ecosystem for aligning on and implementing circularity principles with the goal of total life-cycle emissions minimization. The overarching goal is to facilitate the transition towards an automobility system that is firmly grounded within a 1.5°C scenario. 

SHAPE THE DIALOGUE

• Enable global exchanges at the decision-making level to align on most pressing challenges and industry best practices


• Create shared vision for transition to circular automotive value chains 

INFORM DECISIONS

• Gather insights and data points from across the value chain


• Develop data-driven recommendations for global harmonization and regional action across public and private sectors

DRIVE COLLABORATION

• Curate a community of industry decision makers and thought leaders


• Identify pathways and enable collaborative public-private action

How to engage: The Circular Cars Initiative’s ambition is to create the biggest circularity focused multi-stakeholder coalition in the mobility sector. We are actively looking for automotive OEMs, automotive suppliers (components/ battery/ chemicals/ metal), policy makers, as well as civil society representatives and academics to join us. To learn more about this Initiative and how your company or organization can get involved please reach out to: Natalia.Dziergwa@weforum.org