This past week, BMW announced "DIGITAL, ELECTRIC, CIRCULAR: ON THE ROAD TO NEUE KLASSE-- promising a new line of electric vehicles made up of 100 percent recyclable materials. What??
For a time, autonomous vehicles captured the world’s imagination regarding the future of mobility.??However, if BMW is correct, the future may be more “digital, electric and circular”?than autonomous. ?
These elements are combined in BMW’s “Neue Klasse” announcement. This new line of vehicles will not only be connected, powered by EV motors and batteries, but will also be made of 100% recyclable materials.??BMW believes that it will be the first manufacturer to produce a fully circular car.??The company anticipates that the cars will be available beginning in 2025.
The shift to a more circular economy is a growing global trend.?However, a shift by OEMs to produce vehicles with 100% reused materials would be a game changer.??The global automotive industry is a major consumer of materials, including steel, aluminum, plastics, rubber, glass, and more. On average, a mid-sized car requires roughly 2,000 to 3,000 pounds (900 to 1,400 kilograms) of steel, along with various other materials including, as we transition to EVs .?A mid-sized electric car with a 60 kWh battery pack might contain around 18 to 24 kilograms of lithium.
An important question is how the non-virgin materials will be sourced. ?BMW and other OEMs could turn to bilateral contracts to source scrap steel, recycled glass, recycled plastics and recycled rare earth metals. ??The challenge is that most of these “once loved” material markets are highly fragmented and not likely to provide the deep liquid markets that automakers need.
What we are likely to see, is the emergence of circular marketplaces to supply circular material demand.?These circular marketplaces like Rebound Plastic will provide price discovery, lower price volatility, lower transaction costs and a global platform to buy and sell across borders.?
Even more, if the OEMs collectively join a circular marketplace and make it an integral part of their supply chains, this would spur a much greater supply.??So instead of ending up in landfills and oceans, a lot more material would become the feedstock for future digital, electric and circular cars.
That is a future that industry, governments and circular platforms should get behind.?
Digital, electric, circular: On the road to Neue Klasse. (bmwgroup.com)
#circulareconomy #circularity #futureofmobility #marketplaces #circularplaforms #recycledmaterials #futuretrends #supplychains #innovation The Fast Future Executive UN-ECE Transformative Innovation Network (ETIN), TheNTWK | Digital Business Models
