Circular economy approaches for zero emission vehicles (2ZERO Partnership)

The objective will be to demonstrate the feasibility of circular economy (CE) and net-zero approaches for the EV value chain over its full lifetime (cradle to cradle). The proposed activities should focus on vehicle production (design, manufacturing and assembly), maintenance, repair and End-of-Life (EoL). Additionally, LCA-based vehicle concepts, their related resource and energy efficient manufacturing and CE consistent EoL strategies should be shown.

Proposals are expected to address all the following EV-related research activities:

• Developing an appropriate set of technologies, from production (design, manufacturing and assembly) until End-of-Life and demonstrating their feasibility on vehicle level over the full life cycle by means of prototypical manufactured components ready for test benches verifications. This includes a re-design of components for circularity.
• Assessing the potential for high value and/or energy or rare material content components to be refurbished and reused in new vehicles or as spares.
• Enhancing digital tools enabling a higher degree of circularity along the automotive value chain, e. g. supporting circular design and development, manufacturing or to track materials, their use and the EoL.
• The impact of maintenance and repair technologies and operational strategies will be developed or adapted to ensure a higher degree of circularity compared to existing practices in the passenger car industry.
• Deriving a concept for measuring and assessing the circularity of EV solutions as well as for ensuring a sufficient exchange of information along the automotive supply chain applying FAIR principles[[ Final Report and Action Plan from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data, “TURNING FAIR INTO REALITY” - https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/turning_fair_into_reality_0.pdf]].(opens in new window)
• Concepts for training and increasing the required skills in the automotive industry regarding CE.
• A digital twin of the demonstrator should be used to assess various scenarios, including the exclusive use of recycled or bio-based materials and for the assessment of KPIs.

The research activities are expected to apply the findings of vehicle level LCA methodology developed by the CSA funded under HORIZON-CL5-2021-D5-01-04 as far as they are available. International cooperation addressing requirements of and the impact on global supply chains is encouraged.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Towards zero emission road transport’ (2ZERO). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership ‘Towards zero emission road transport’ (2ZERO) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.