Stellantis Circular Economy plan to offer used car parts for up to 30% less

Car owners are to be offered cheaper and more environmentally friendly reconditioned and second-hand parts to help keep their vehicles on the road for longer, as part of new plans revealed by automotive giant Stellantis.

The group, whose brands include Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Alfa Romeo, DS, Fiat and Jeep, has given its new ‘Circular Economy’ division - headed up by former Peugeot UK boss Alison Jones - the target of earning two billion euros in revenue every year by the end of the decade. 

Elements like battery reuse and recycling fall under the new division’s brief. But a larger percentage of its income will depend on Stellantis’s ability to strip down its brands’ old vehicles - those that have reached the end of their life, or that have been written off by insurance firms - and repurpose their components to offer them to existing customers. In other cases, worn-down parts could be repaired and reinstalled into vehicles.

Doing this, Jones says, will cut the amount of fresh materials used for these components by up to 80 per cent, and the reduce the amount of energy used in their manufacture by up to half. These savings will be passed on to consumers, who should pay between 10 and 30 per cent less for the used part than they would for a new one. 

Speaking to Auto Express, Jones said that while switching customers into EVs is one way of reducing CO2 emissions, helping owners in many regions to run their existing cars for longer will also help. “We have one of the widest ranges of EVs available for our customers,” Jones said, “but moving to EV requires support from government, to help with infrastructure and encourage customers to want to move. In some countries where that is not so well developed, extending the life of combustion-engined vehicles will really make a difference. I don’t think there’s one solution that covers all countries.”

The plan is a key one for Stellantis, which is aiming to be carbon net zero by 2038. The firm recently announced that it will open a European ‘hub’ for its parts recycling processes in Turin, Italy. But the company already has around 12,000 refreshed components available, across 40 model lines, and Jones revealed that it wants to more than double the percentage of its overall parts line-up covered by the scheme. “Those 12,000 components cover about 15 per cent of our portfolio as remanufactured,” she said. “We want that to be at 40 per cent by 2030.”

Jones said there are “already customers who want to buy parts on a more ethical basis” but she acknowledged that dealers will have to play a role in introducing owners to the idea of refurbished components, even those with a full warranty. “What we’re already seeing is that some dealers are really strong at this, whereas others are not so aware,” she said. “Our job is to increase that awareness for our dealers, and for our customers. We know customers are looking for sustainable choices and we’re increasingly able to offer this.”

She also revealed that in time, buyers of new cars will see design and engineering being tailored towards the circular economy - using materials that can be more easily recycled, or construction that makes it simpler to remove and change components. “The recent Citroen Oli is a good example of a concept showing all of the way around the loop,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t like to put a timeframe on it but what the brands are doing now is trying to stitch all of the bits together to complete the loop in production vehicles.”

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