Renault pushes circular economy with a new company

It will be the first company to tap into the entire value chain of the circular economy in the automotive industry and reach out beyond the Renault Group to all players in the sector. Against the backdrop of the energy transition, resource scarcity and commodity price inflation, the company will develop new technical and industrial solutions for the circular economy thanks to the proven expertise of its subsidiaries and its already active network of partners.

The new company, The Future is Neutral, will enable the automotive industry to significantly increase the share of recycled materials from its sources in the production of new vehicles. Today, a new car contains only 20 to 30 per cent recycled materials from all sectors.

In the short term, the new company aims to expand its existing businesses and develop innovative opportunities for the automotive industry. With a turnover of more than 2.3 billion euros and a margin of more than 10 per cent, The Future is Neutral aims to be the leader in the automotive circular economy in Europe by 2030.

To accelerate its development in a fast-growing market, The Future is Neutral is tying up external investors for a small part of its capital to co-finance investments of around 500 million euros by 2030.

"Today we take another step in our long-standing commitment to the circular economy. Our subsidiaries Gaia, Indra and Boone Comenor, as well as the Refactory in Flins, have already proven that we can develop activities that add economic, social and environmental value throughout the life cycle of a vehicle. Building on this experience, we are accelerating development by creating The Future is Neutral, a company that brings together all our industrial and technological resources and our network of strategic partners," says Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault Group.

The mission of the new company, he said, is to grow the business strategically and with new outlets by offering closed-loop recycling solutions to the automotive industry, which is facing the challenge of climate change, new regulatory requirements and increasing pressure on resources. "Our goal is to take recycling into a new era and become the European leader in the circular economy," de Meo said.

Every year in Europe, more than eleven million vehicles, about 85 per cent of which are made of recyclable materials, reach the end of their life cycle. However, these resources are insufficiently used: Currently, only 20 to 30 per cent of new vehicles consist of recycled material. This comes from all branches of the industry.

The aim of The Future is Neutral is to preserve the value of parts and materials for as long as possible and to enable the industry to use a much higher proportion of recycled automotive materials in the production of new vehicles. According to Renault, The Future is Neutral's strength lies in its network of subsidiaries and partners to collect parts, materials and batteries throughout a vehicle's lifecycle, whether from scrap cars, production rejects or garages.

Specifically, The Future is Neutral relies on the expertise of its subsidiary Gaia, which repairs batteries, collects and reuses parts and recycles materials from end-of-life vehicles at the Refactory Flins site. The refurbishment of mechanical and mechatronic parts, also located at the heart of Refactory Flins, as well as the future vehicle dismantling facility, aims to supply these circular flows. With its reference partner Suez, the company also consists of two other companies: Indra, the market leader in end-of-life vehicle recycling in France with more than 370 authorised centres, and Boone Comenor, a specialist in recycling metal scrap from the industry.