Europe has tightened the rules governing what happens to a car throughout its life. Since 13 August, the new European Vehicle Circularity Regulation has been in force, requiring manufacturers not only to recycle vehicles but also to design them for easier dismantling and reuse, and to feed recovered materials back into new cars.

Belgium starts from a relatively strong position. Febelauto, which coordinates the treatment of end-of-life vehicles on behalf of manufacturers and importers, already reports a 98% useful recovery rate.

From 2032, at least 15% of the plastic used in new cars must come from recycled sources. That rises to 25% in 2036, with part of it specifically originating from old vehicles. Requirements for steel, aluminum, magnesium and critical raw materials are expected to follow. Most provisions begin to apply two years after the regulation enters into force.

The legislation goes much further than crushing old cars and separating metals. Components will have to be easier to remove, repair and reuse. At the same time, manufacturers and importers will assume greater financial and organizational responsibility once their vehicles reach the end of their useful lives.

Belgium already has the infrastructure

Much of the necessary collection infrastructure already exists in Belgium. Febelauto coordinates the end-of-life management of vehicles and batteries from electrified cars through a collective system that covers almost the entire market.

In 2025, 31 producers and importers of electrified vehicles were affiliated with Febelauto, representing 79 brands and 99.82% of the hybrid and electric vehicles placed on the Belgian market.

Its board illustrates how broad that cooperation is. Chaired by Smart Belgium CEO Henry Wattel, it includes representatives from D’Ieteren Automotive, Volvo Cars, Renault Group, Polestar and Ford, as well as the recycling industry and organizations including Traxio, Denuo and Agoria.

This means tougher European rules do not require every manufacturer to build a separate Belgian recycling network. Competing brands can meet part of their producer responsibilities through the same authorized collection, treatment and recycling ecosystem.

In 2025, Febelauto achieved a 98% useful recovery rate for end-of-life vehicles, comprising almost 25% reuse, 69% material recycling and a smaller share recovered as energy.

EV batteries are the next challenge

Electrification adds both complexity and value. Last year, 5,172 reusable or discarded EV batteries and modules were collected in Belgium, weighing 551 tonnes. Febelauto now has ten specialized approved centers capable of handling electrified vehicles and high-voltage batteries.

The aim is increasingly to preserve components rather than immediately reduce everything to raw materials. In 2025, 31% of collected EV batteries were reused or used in second-life applications, while 37% were recycled.

That matters economically. Reusing a battery module, electric motor or electronic component retains considerably more of its value than shredding or melting it back into raw material.

Febelauto is also preparing for the broader scope of European legislation, which will extend responsibilities beyond passenger cars to categories including trucks, buses, and motorcycles, and require greater traceability throughout the treatment chain.

Renault shows how carmakers are reorganizing

The change does not stop at the scrapyard. Circularity is moving further up the automotive industry’s organizational chart, becoming part of product development, purchasing, raw material strategy, and corporate governance.

Renault Group offers a recent example. On 1 July, it created the new position of General Secretary and appointed Quitterie de Pelleport to it. Her broad remit combines legal affairs, audit, risk, ethics and compliance with sustainability, strategic partnerships and Renault’s circular-economy activities, including The Future Is NEUTRAL.

Renault said the new structure was designed to help it anticipate regulatory, industrial and environmental transformations. The new European rules illustrate exactly that shift: what happens to a car at the end of its life increasingly determines how the next one is designed and which materials manufacturers purchase.

Through The Future Is NEUTRAL, Renault is also trying to close the industrial loop. Its AUTOLOOP activities already cover polypropylene, copper, aluminum and precious metals, while EV batteries add lithium, nickel and cobalt.

Instead of allowing recovered materials to be downgraded into lower-value applications, Renault wants more of them to flow back into automotive production.

Under its futuREady strategy, the group aims for 30% of the materials used in each vehicle to come from the circular economy by 2030.

De Pelleport also brings experience from another heavily regulated materials industry. Before joining Renault, she spent a decade at chemicals group Solvay, ultimately becoming Group General Counsel. That background is increasingly relevant as raw materials, recycling, environmental regulation and corporate responsibility become intertwined.

From scrapyard to raw-material supplier

Renault is only one example of a transformation all manufacturers will face. The presence of Smart, D’Ieteren Automotive, Volvo, Polestar, Ford and Renault within Febelauto shows how much of the challenge is already being tackled collectively in Belgium.

The next step is more demanding. Europe does not merely want cars to be disposed of efficiently. It wants plastics, metals, batteries, and reusable components recovered from old vehicles to find their way back into new ones.

That also changes the role of organizations such as Febelauto. The end of the automotive chain is gradually becoming a supplier to the beginning of the next one.

For Europe’s car industry, an old vehicle is increasingly less a piece of waste and more a raw-material mine for the car that replaces it.