End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation European Commission Proposal

The European Copper Institute (ECI) welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) ambition to bolster responsible production and recycling of vehicles, as well as maintain within the EU economy the value carried by this stream. The EC proposal for a Regulation on End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVR) has great potential in driving vehicles’ sustainability, and to effectively do so, we believe the following enabling conditions should be secured:

1. Collection, recovery and recycling of high-quality secondary materials (Recital 64)

Resource efficiency should be strengthened taking due account of energy efficiency, economic viability, and technical feasibility aspects.

2. Unknown whereabouts (Article 38)

Keeping the management of vehicle exports at national competence level limits the effectiveness of getting the challenge of the unknown whereabouts under full control.

3. Hazardous substances (Article 5)

Should not be restricted upon their presence in vehicles, but upon the form in which they are found and the adverse impacts caused by the exposure to humans or the environment.

This initiative is of great relevance and importance for the copper sector. Currently, there is an estimate of 300kt unrecovered copper from ELV separation and shredding inefficiencies, which, combined with the illegal exports challenge, lead to over EUR 6bn losses. By 2030, copper in vehicles is expected to rise by 200% (electric vehicles, electrification-related products, and charging infrastructure), tripling the embodied economic value. More information on copper recycling in ELVs can be found here. Therefore, the ELVR is a critical tool to secure secondary copper availability and the maintaining of its associated value within the Union.

Learn more about End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) recycling in Europe