End-of-life vehicles: progress on recycled content, but truck and bus makers face disproportionate burden

The Committees Report on End-of-life Vehicle Regulation is a significant step toward enhancing the auto sector’s circularity and improving the management of ELVs containing valuable and critical raw materials. ACEA particularly welcomes the inclusion of pre-consumer plastics in the calculation of recycled content targets, this ensures that targets remain achievable and aligned with manufacturing realities. Nevertheless, a phased-in approach is essential due to the current lack of high-quality, safe, and automotive-grade recycled plastics on the market. 

“The Parliament has made notable progress, particularly on recycled content,” stated Sigrid de Vries, Director General of ACEA. “But crushing legal and financial risks placed unfairly on truck and bus manufacturers, are a serious concern at a time when the sector’s competitiveness hangs in the balance”, de Vries added.  

Truck and buses manufacturers risk being unfairly held responsible for the dismantling, depollution and treatment of bodywork they neither produced nor placed on the market. In practice, this bodywork often arrives at Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) with the vehicle, yet manufacturers face a maze of unclear end-of-life management responsibilities.  

Clear rules and fair responsibility sharing are essential to make this Regulation workable in practice. Like trailer and other cargo material, bodywork* should instead be brought under the scope of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to avoid loopholes and uncertainties in the treatment process and associated costs. 

Today’s European Parliament committee vote on the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) file, was a step towards a more pragmatic regulation, yet serious concerns remain about the undue burden on truck and bus makers.