Automotive industry's circularity applications and industry 4.0

Abstract

The automotive industry is experiencing a monumental shift from internal combustion engine cars to electric vehicles and embracing Industry 4.0 technologies. This is a response to the high anthropogenic impacts of the automotive industry at 14% of all direct and indirect emissions worldwide. However, the shift occurring is not holistic and is only focused on addressing the direct emissions of the vehicles at their point of use commonly referred to as tailpipe emissions. A more holistic solution for the industry to ensure future proof and impactful change would be to change from linear flow of materials to a circular one, for a linear flow of materials and energy is not feasible to maintain if industries are meant to be sustainable. The framework of the circular economy provides a solution for change across the lifecycle of a vehicle providing the automotive industry a path towards a robust sustainable transportation solution. This paper aims to examine the automotive industry's circular economy initiatives under Industry 4.0. To understand the circularity efforts and initiatives across the industry to reduce the knowledge gap. The Automotive industry was selected since it is responsible for a significant portion of the anthropogenic environmental impacts. A qualitative descriptive analysis of the top 10 automotive companies on the global fortune 500 list was conducted to assess their level of circularity based on a framework presented by the authors. The findings include that all companies are shifting to EVs, 50% have evidence of level 1 initiatives, and 90% have evidence of level 2 initiatives. However, the efforts currently in operation are not at scale and has scarcely addressed any aspects of the car outside its power train, fuel technology, and recycling. Therefore, to avoid a future shift like the one the industry is currently experiencing, the automotive industry must incorporate circularity in the transition to EVs.