In a proposal announced on Thursday, the European Commission said it wants to ban scrap cars that are not roadworthy from being sold to countries outside the European Union.

The Commission said the prohibition is part of plans to reduce carbon emissions, create more jobs, and improve access to raw materials like steel and aluminum for the automotive sector.

New obligations

Manufacturers must use 25% of recycled plastics in new cars while making it easier to dismantle cars once they have reached their end-of-life condition. The Commission also wants to step up enforcement of existing rules to make manufacturers take more responsibility for the disposal of their cars, with more inspections and digital tracking.

Another proposal is to recycle 30% of plastics from scrap cars that are being disposed of. Better road safety outside the EU should also result from fewer non-roadworthy vehicles. Costs for new cars are expected to increase by less than €40, according to the Commission.

Export restrictions will be gradually applied to motorbikes, trucks, and buses. The European Parliament and the 27 EU member states must examine the legal proposal before it enters into force.

ACEA reacts

The Association of European car manufacturers ACEA has immediately reacted to the proposals of the Commission. ACEA is concerned that the proposal could duplicate or complicate existing rules and industry best practices on sustainable design.

“While the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation is pushing for ambitious recycled content targets, European auto manufacturers believe lawmakers should instead focus on ensuring a coherent legislative framework that balances conflicting waste, product, and chemical regulations for vehicles,” ACEA writes.

“We are also concerned that the Commission has not sufficiently examined imbalances in the demand and supply of recycled materials and existing technology gaps before proposing these ambitious targets,” Sigrid de Vries, ACEA’s Director General, adds.

“Automakers invest around one-third of the EU’s R&D spent, much of which is pumped into technologies to boost vehicle circularity,” the ACEA press release continues.

“However, the Commission’s proposal risks duplicating or complicating existing rules and industry best practices, hindering these vital investments. Instead, the regulation should better account for vehicles’ increasing complexities and specificities, including longevity, durability, and reparability.”

ACEA also believes that the current ELV and the 3R Type-Approval directives should not be merged. Their separation provides manufacturers with more certainty, e.g., for investments in recycling technologies for the lithium-ion batteries essential to the electric vehicles transition.

“These technologies are not available at an industrial scale when new vehicle models are first placed on the market. Realistically, they can only reach lab scale around 15 years before their end of life,” notes de Vries. “The co-legislators must ensure sufficient R&D lead times or risk undermining certainty for vehicle circularity investments.” To be continued.