Circular Cars Initiative

The automotive industry is facing the deepest transformation since the rise of the combustion engine. Electrification, digitalization, automation and the alignment to a 1.5°C scenario call for a reconfiguration of the legacy business models and a significant reduction of the sector’s carbon footprint. The Circular Cars Initiative (CCI), jointly formed with the World Economic Forum, helps the automotive industry to eliminate or minimize total life-cycle emissions through collaboration, policies and technologies that put circularity and sustainability at the core of future car use and manufacturing.  

    The challenge

    To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, the automotive sector needs to find fast and cost-effective pathways to a decarbonized future. New mobility services and their impact on usage patterns of cars as well as material efficiency policies can catalyze a positive change for businesses. But managing the convergence of technologies, business models and policies, needed to align the auto industry with a 1.5°C scenario, requires a systems approach founded on transparency and collective action. 

    The business case

    Increasing the level of circularity in the automotive industry can result in economic, societal and ecological benefits. Highly utilized, circular cars are estimated to reduce carbon emissions by up to 75% and resource consumption by up to 80% per passenger kilometer by 2030 according to a calculation by CCI. Collaboration and collective roadmaps can help car manufacturers to find new value pools and stimulate a shift to a sustainable, circular economy.  

    The solution

    CCI is a partnership between private and public stakeholders from the automobility ecosystem that aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across the automobile lifecycle and increase the efficiency of materials and vehicle utilization. The Initiative will set the agenda of the automotive industry transformation towards circularity through collective knowledge creation, proof of concepts and policy dialogues.

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