BMW Group has entered into a strategic partnership with circular-economy specialist PreZero to develop a scalable approach to vehicle recycling across Europe. The cooperation aims to turn end-of-life vehicles from a regulatory obligation into a structural source of high-quality secondary raw materials.
For Belgium, where end-of-life vehicle management is centrally organised through Febelauto, the initiative highlights how recycling is rapidly becoming a strategic pillar of the automotive value chain rather than a back-end compliance exercise.
Circularity throughout the car’s lifecycle
According to BMW Group, the partnership is designed to embed circularity throughout the vehicle lifecycle. “The circular economy is no longer just a sustainability topic, but a real business model for the automotive industry,” the group stated.
It points to rising pressure on raw material supply chains and the need to reduce CO₂ emissions across production and recycling. By keeping materials in use for as long as possible and improving recovery at the vehicle’s end of life, BMW wants to reduce dependence on primary raw materials and strengthen the resilience of its European operations.
Gap between design and recycling practice
PreZero is a Germany-based environmental services company belonging to the Schwarz Group (Lidl and Kaufland), which contributes hands-on expertise in waste management, advanced sorting, and battery recycling from its European operations. It helps bridge the traditional gap between vehicle design and real-world recycling practice.
“Only by connecting manufacturing, dismantling, and material recovery can circularity be scaled across Europe,” PreZero explained, framing the partnership as a way to industrialise recycling processes rather than treating them as isolated downstream activities.
A core element of the cooperation is technical knowledge transfer: drawing on its in-house Recycling and Dismantling Center, BMW will feed “design for recycling” principles, dismantling data, and materials expertise back into vehicle development. The aim is to improve practical end-of-life treatment in industrial recycling systems such as those coordinated in Belgium by Febelauto.
The announcement comes at a pivotal moment for the European automotive sector. The European Union is preparing stricter end-of-life vehicle rules, including higher recycling and recovery targets and minimum recycled-content requirements for new cars.
These measures will force manufacturers to take far greater responsibility for what happens to vehicles after their last kilometre, effectively erasing the boundary between production and recycling.
Belgium ahead
Belgium is already familiar with this integrated approach. Through Febelauto, the country has operated a nationally coordinated system for end-of-life vehicles for years.
The organisation, officially recognised by the authorities, manages the take-back obligation for car manufacturers and importers, coordinates a nationwide network of authorised treatment facilities, and ensures that depollution, dismantling, and material recovery meet European targets.
“Our model shows that central coordination and strict compliance can go hand in hand with high recycling performance,” Febelauto has previously indicated in its annual reporting.
What the BMW-PreZero partnership illustrates is how OEMs are now moving closer to the type of system Belgium already has in place. Recycling is no longer seen solely as a legal duty delegated to national schemes, but as an integral extension of vehicle design and industrial strategy.
For Febelauto, this evolution presents both opportunities and challenges. Closer cooperation with manufacturers could unlock higher-value material loops, but it also requires greater transparency, digital material tracking, and alignment with OEM-specific circular ambitions.
In practical terms, this shift could accelerate changes already underway in Belgium, such as improved traceability of end-of-life vehicles, more systematic reuse of components, and better recovery of plastics and battery materials.
As BMW puts it, “the value of a car does not end when it leaves the road,” a message that resonates strongly with Belgium’s long-established ELV framework.
For Belgium and for Febelauto, the signal is clear: the national recycling system is no longer just a tool for meeting legal targets but a strategic asset that connects local dismantling operations with global material flows.
