Circularity and Sustainability

According to a study conducted by Allianz SE, the EU-average savings from repair rather than replacement include about 45.8 kg CO₂e for headlights, 60.7 kg CO₂e for an average door, 42.7 kg CO₂e for a side panel, and 22.3 kg CO₂e for a windscreen, and Roland Berger estimates service availability saves almost 10 hours per commercial vehicle per year, 230 million service hours across the European commercial fleet, and avoids the need for around 110,000 additional vehicles and €16.2 billion in extra fleet.

Aftermarket actors are present throughout the entire vehicle lifecycle, from the first repair to end-of-life treatment. This gives them a unique position in the circular economy: they see which parts fail, which components can be reused, which cores can be remanufactured, and how these parts can be collected, tested, and reintroduced into the market efficiently.

This practical, day-to-day service is essential for circularity and reducing greenhouse emissions. The aftermarket already operates many of the systems needed to keep valuable components in circulation within Europe: core returning, core sorting, disassembling, reverse logistics, reconditioning, testing and reassembling, warehousing, distribution to and use by workshop networks. These channels help ensure that reusable parts and remanufacturable cores do not become waste prematurely.

Remanufactured parts are already a proven, trusted, and widely used element of Europe’s repair ecosystem. They offer a way to reduce demand for new raw materials, lower the environmental footprint of repairs compared to replacement, and maintain affordable access to spare parts. This is increasingly important as vehicles contain more electronics, batteries, sensors, and critical materials. According to the Commission’s Joint Research Center, automotive remanufacturing can keep around 150,000 tonnes of materials within the EU and reduce the global-warming potential of key components by up to 79%.