CarE-Service developed new solutions and approaches that represent a novelty in the domain of the circular economy of electric vehicles.
In batteries End-Of-Life, the project demonstrated the applicability of robotics solutions for the dismantling of battery packs, that is a critical operation implying significant technical and safety challenges, and that is not currently supported by consolidated technologies.
At module and cell level, industrial process protocols, testing procedures and a decision support system that can be widely applicable by remanufacturers were developed. Such tools will support the massive diffusion of these circular processes in industry and the End-Of-Life management of the big variety of modules and cells.
About battery recycling, a laboratory comparison of pyro-metallurgy and hydro-metallurgy to recycle black mass was carried out.
In the metals chain, the demonstration of new remanufacturing technologies opened the way to future disruptive circular scenarios in the automotive sector, where remanufactured parts, with new shape and characteristics, can be used for the production of new vehicles at large scale, or for the maintenance and periodic upgrade of cars.
Regarding techno-polymers, the project demonstrated for the first time the possibility to produce components from recycled post-consumers parts dismantled from End-Of-Life vehicles, to be used in automotive or in other applications (until now, only post-industrial recycling could be pursued).
CarE-Service proposed a business model that is meant to address the challenges of the End-Of-Life of electric vehicles in the current transition phase, where the volume of cars to be treated does not justify big investments. To address this issue, dismantling and testing technologies were made movable in order to make them available, as a service, to dismantlers. In this way, the entire logistics flow can be optimised by taking the best routing decisions at the dismantling site and avoiding the unnecessary transportation of parts. Leveraging on these innovative concepts, the CarE-Service Platform was conceived to offer additional value compared to other existing general-purpose marketplaces.
All these innovations were assessed in terms of economic and environmental impacts, thus providing information to industrial and policy decision makers on the sustainability of new automotive circular businesses. Compared to other studies, CarE-Service performed a holistic value chain assessment, including dismantlers, remanufacturers, recyclers, OEMs and car sharing companies, in order to assess the sustainability at all value chain levels and to identify the impact of local decision and technology performance on the rest of the stakeholders.
Besides technology and industrial impact, the project generated also social impact through the design and demonstration of innovative mobility services for citizens. Such services imply the integration of car sharing and municipal/regional public transportation, with mixed “Business to Business” and “Business to Consumers” models that optimise the use of vehicles and reduce environmental footprint. First customers have already experienced the new services and a wide European survey demonstrated that citizens are in favour of this new mobility value proposition.
