End-of-life management of the automotive industry and the opportunities for Czechia

After three successful projects focusing on the decarbonization of the Czech automotive industry, the Green Europe team of EUROPEUM in collaboration with the Institute of Circular Economy (INCIEN) is broadening its focus and taking a more circular approach. This project will focus on better lifecycle and end-of-life management of materials used in vehicles and batteries. The collaboration will be split into two research areas.

You can read the report from the roundtable organised within the project here and here.

INCIEN will focus on the major structural materials used in cars (such as steel, aluminium, plastics) and the requirements set out in the European Commission’s July 2023 proposal for a new End-of-life Vehicles Regulation that aims to boost environmental protection, decarbonise production and maximise recovery and circularity of these materials in the automotive value chain. Information about researchers cooperating on the project from INCIEN can be found here - Benjamin Hague and Tadeáš Rulík.

EUROPEUM will focus on the end-of-life management of EV batteries and the requirements introduced by the Regulation on Batteries and Waste Batteries and the proposed Critical Raw Materials Act, which seeks to recycle at least 15%* of the EU’s annual consumption of battery raw materials by 2030. 

Project goals:

• Assess the state of play of end-of-life management in Czechia;
• Explore the potential for better end-of-life management in Czechia and pave the way for securing a sustainable secondary supply chain for critical raw materials and other materials used in vehicles;
• Provide Czechia with an end-of-life management roadmap for materials used in vehicles and batteries.  

Project activities:

• Mapping stakeholders;
• Identifying needed infrastructure and approaches to establish it including the producer's  responsibility;
• Exploring ways to make recycling technologies/processes (hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy) cleaner and more sustainable;
• Exploring ways to attract investment for the establishment of end-of-life infrastructure of materials used in vehicles and batteries;
• Creating enabling conditions for circular use of resources in the automotive sector;
• Increasing awareness among stakeholders, policymakers, and citizens.

 The project is supported by the European Climate Foundation and runs until November 2024.

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* In November 2023, EP and the Council politically agreed on a higher recycling target of 25% which will reflect both the consumption of each raw material and waste. This agreement needs to be formalised.

Tatiana Mindeková
Project Manager / Analyst

Jonathan Lyons
Research Fellow

Filip Křenek
Project Coordinator and Analyst

Rebeka Hengalová
Research Fellow

Kateřina Davidová
Senior Research Fellow

Expertise: EU climate and energy policy, environmental protection