Europe – EUCAR vehicle weight reduction and recycling study is critical of EU ELV Directive

EUCAR, the European Council for Automotive R&D, has completed a study on light and recyclable cars (LIRECAR).



The study was co-funded by European Commission‘‘s research programme for competitive and sustainable growth. Its aim was to identify the environmental impacts and effectiveness of combinations of recycling/recovery and lightweight vehicle design options over the whole lifecycle of a vehicle, including the manufacturing, use and recycling/recovery phases.



The LIRECAR study involved all stakeholders of the vehicle lifecycle. It compared three sets of vehicle weight scenarios – a 1,000kg weight reference, and alternative weight reductions of 100kg and 250kg. The study considered three different end-of-life scenarios:



Compliance with current EU ELV directive, and two theoretical scenarios – 100% recycling, and 100% energy recovery from shredder residue fractions). Only environmental considerations, and neither economic nor technical feasibility, figured in the study‘‘s analysis.



The results of the study were measured against the EU ELV directive‘‘s approach to improving environmental performance focused on recycling/recovery quotas and reducing waste from ELVs by addressing ‘‘mainly bureaucratic quotas‘‘ for the end-of-life phase of the vehicle life cycle.



The LIRECAR study‘‘s main conclusions are:

The EOL technologies studied, including the recycling of automotive shredder residue (ASR), do not significantly improve other environmental impacts besides total waste – but ASR represents no more than 1% of the total waste in the EU.

Lightweight vehicle design options could contribute to the diminution of environmental impacts over the whole life cycle of a vehicle, including hazardous waste, resource depletion, and global warming – but the weight reduction impact is not as high as often suggested

Any design solution should strive for the optimum of overall environmental improvements by balancing parameters such as vehicle weight, recycling and other requirements

At present, the narrow focus and inflexibility of the ELV directive hinders this optimisation process. An overall life cycle improvement, rather than a focus on generic targets such as weight and recycling targets, would be achieve better environmental performance.

Goal, Scope & Background



The automotive industry has a long history in improving the environmental performance of vehicles – fuel economy and emission improvements, introduction of recycled and renewable materials, etc. The European Union also aims at improving the environmental performance of products by reducing, in particular, waste resulting from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) for example. The European Commission estimates that ELVs contribute to approximately 1% of the total waste in Europe [9]. Other European Union strategies are considering more life cycle aspects, as well as other impacts including resource or climate change. This article is summarizing the results of a European Commission funded project (LIRECAR) that aims at identifying the environmental impacts and relevance for combinations of recycling / recovery and lightweight vehicle design options over the whole life cycle of a vehicle – i.e. manufacturing, use and recycling/recovery. Three, independent and scientific LCA experts reviewed the study according to ISO 14040. From the beginning, representatives of all Life Cycle Stakeholders have been involved (European materials & supplier associations, an environmental Non-Governmental Organization, recycler”s association).



Model & System Definition



The study compared 3 sets of theoretical vehicle weight scenarios: 1000 kg reference (material range of today”s end-of-life, mid-sized vehicles produced in the early 1990‘‘s) and 2 lightweight scenarios for 100 kg and 250 kg less weight based on reference functio