A recent FISITA webinar addressed the sustainable mobility challenge facing automotive industry leadership: how to balance sustainability, growth, and profitability? Martin Kahl, FISITA’s Director of Technical, summarises the discussion.
The transition to sustainable mobility is often framed around electrification, but a recent FISITA webinar highlighted an equally important transformation taking place behind the scenes: the shift towards a circular economy. Bringing together leading experts in sustainable mobility, the discussion explored how the cost of carbon, the circular economy, and a burgeoning remanufacturing industry are rapidly moving sustainability from compliance issue to core business strategy.
Hosted by FISITA, the webinar featured Peter Lukassen, Director Operational Sustainability at Bosch, Sophie Schmidtlin, CTO of The Future is Neutral, and mobility strategist Lukas Neckermann, who discussed how reuse, remanufacturing and recycling are helping the automotive industry reduce emissions, improve profitability and strengthen supply chain resilience.
Circular economy: an old idea becoming a new imperative
Opening the session with a keynote, Peter Lukassen presented the automotive supplier perspective, arguing that circular economy principles are not new, but are becoming increasingly essential as the industry faces growing pressure on resources, supply chains and carbon emissions. At Bosch, he said, remanufacturing has been part of the business for more than 60 years, but the scale of the opportunity is growing rapidly. “The question is no longer whether circular economy becomes a critical topic in mobility,” he said, “but how quickly we can all adapt and scale it.”
Lukassen highlighted the environmental benefits of remanufacturing automotive components. He cited a recent analysis of remanufactured starters which showed reductions of 87% in material use and 83% in CO₂ emissions compared with manufacturing new components.
“The question is no longer whether circular economy becomes a critical topic in mobility, but how quickly we can all adapt and scale it”
However, the most striking message was that sustainability and profitability are becoming increasingly aligned. “There is a real win-win with remanufacturing,” said Lukassen.
Why electrification makes circularity even more important
One of the webinar’s key themes was the impact electrification will have on vehicle lifecycles and repair economics. Unlike traditional combustion engines, electric vehicles contain more electronics and components that may become difficult or expensive to source as vehicles age. According to Lukassen, this changes the economics of long-term vehicle ownership dramatically.
Without circular economy solutions, repairing older electrified vehicles could simply become uneconomic, and so remanufacturing and component reuse will play a vital role in keeping vehicles affordable and on the road for longer. The panel agreed that circularity is not just an environmental necessity but a practical enabler of sustainable mobility.
Turning end-of-life vehicles into valuable resources
Providing an OEM perspective, Sophie Schmidtlin explained how The Future is Neutral, a company established by Renault Group, is building circular economy operations at industrial scale. The company manages the entire value chain, from vehicle collection and dismantling through to parts reuse, remanufacturing and material recycling.
Schmidtlin, who chairs FISITA’s Circular Economy Expert Group, said she sees Europe’s estimated eight million end-of-life vehicles each year not as waste, but as a valuable resource: “There is value in transforming the flow of end-of-life vehicles into a real resource for the automotive sector in Europe.”
The economics are compelling: remanufactured parts can typically cost around 30% less than new components, and reused parts can reduce costs by as much as 70%, while still delivering suitable quality and performance.
“There is value in transforming the flow of end-of-life vehicles into a real resource for the automotive sector in Europe”
Importantly, The Future is Neutral operates as a brand-agnostic business, servicing OEMs, insurers, fleets, independent repairers and aftermarket customers alike. The objective is to maximise value retention before materials reach the recycling stage, said Schmidtlin, noting, “It’s no longer about managing waste, it’s about creating as much value as possible.”
Fleets could become the biggest driver of change
For Lukas Neckermann, circularity ultimately comes back to economics and customer value. With fleet operators now representing a significant proportion of vehicle purchases, decisions are increasingly driven by total cost of ownership rather than emotion, creating powerful incentives for manufacturers to design vehicles that are repairable, durable and capable of retaining value throughout their lifecycle. “Residual value,” he said, “becomes effectively a sustainability metric.”
By increasing vehicle lifespan and reducing repair costs, circular design principles directly improve residual value, unlocking strong business incentives alongside environmental benefits. Neckermann also highlighted the strategic importance of material recovery, particularly for batteries, adding, that this has major implications not only for sustainability, but also for Europe’s resource security and industrial resilience.
From compliance to competitive advantage
Perhaps the strongest consensus among the speakers was that leading companies are no longer viewing sustainability as a compliance exercise. Lukassen argued that organisations that embed sustainability into core business decision-making are able to identify new revenue streams, cost savings and market opportunities. “If I only see sustainability as a compliance checkbox, then I will never understand the cash flow behind it,” he said.
“The prospect is quite exciting, that we could get a quarter, a third, maybe in 20 years even half of our materials for batteries from recycled materials as opposed to from mines”
Schmidtlin echoed this perspective, describing circular economy as a direct source of competitive advantage. “Being well placed in circular economy is being competitive,” she affirmed.
With growing regulatory requirements around recycled content, vehicle dismantlability and material recovery, businesses that act early will be best positioned to secure resources, avoid future costs and maintain market access.
Looking ahead
The webinar closed on an optimistic note. While circular economy today accounts for only a small proportion of the automotive aftermarket, the speakers agreed that the opportunity is enormous. With increasing pressure on resources, growing demand for affordable mobility and the rise of electrified vehicles, circularity is becoming central to the future mobility ecosystem.
As Lukas Neckermann concluded, “We’re so far beyond ESG and sustainability as being a tick-the-box exercise, this is really about creating new business models, thinking about circularity right from the beginning, and making it profitable.”
For the mobility sector, circular economy is no longer simply about reducing waste. It is emerging as a powerful strategy for resilience, affordability, competitiveness and sustainable growth.
Click here to watch online: FISITA Webinar: How can auto industry leadership achieve sustainability, growth, and profitability?
To register for future FISITA webinars, and watch past webinars on-demand, visit FISITA’s dedicated webinar page: FISITA Webinars – FISITA
Next FISITA webinar: Australia’s changing automotive industry – challenges, diversity and opportunities facing the Australian marketplace – FISITA Webinars – FISITA