Could, or should, components be recycled into new vehicles?
By: Alan Bunting, Monday, March 09, 2009, AutomotiveWorld.com
Any suggestion that a new vehicle might incorporate 'remanufactured' components would be greeted with horror in many quarters. It is an unspoken article of faith, which has been taken for granted in the auto industry for a century or more, that a new car, van or truck, fresh off the production line, is indeed new, through and through.
It is an entirely understandable expectation. Though in the 21st Century, when environmental concerns have led to demands for end-of-life vehicle recycling of vehicles, it could be quite reasonably argued that components remanufactured by the original producer should 'qualify' for inclusion in new vehicle specifications. From a raw material and manufacturing energy standpoint it would make eminent sense.
When 'reconditioning' was the more favoured term, few suppliers of such parts – even when branded with the original maker's name – could claim to match the quality and life expectation of the all-new alternative. The latter inevitably commanded a price premium. But attitudes as well as marketing strategies are changing.
Typical of today's big-name component suppliers is the German driveline and suspension specialist the ZF Group which, through aftermarket outlets, most obviously vehicle dealers' parts departments, now sells remanufactured ZF, Sachs, Boge and Lemforder components alongside their all-new counterparts. Most significantly, remanufactured and all-new ZF group components are identically priced. Addy Doodt, managing director of ZF Trading UK, says "if we supplied remanufactured components cheaper there would be something wrong."
End-of-life recycling, as envisaged under EU Directive 2000/53/EC, applicable mainly to cars and vans, focuses on recoverable raw materials, mainly metals and plastics, which by implication can be melted down or otherwise processed to usefully augment the traditional use of newly-sourced raw materials. It brings down total manufacturing cost while reducing associated energy requirements and corresponding CO2 factory emissions. No objections to the practice are raised by marketing executives or others about such recycled – arguably 'second hand' – materials being incorporated into new vehicles.
It is now being realised, not least by conservationists eager to minimise the rate at which the earth’s resources are being plundered, that the distinction between a) recycling materials in their raw state and b) making further productive use of materials which are already cast, forged, stamped or moulded, and of certified quality is a fine one. That verification of quality is underlined by warranty terms which, in the case of ZF group components for example, are the same for both new components and their remanufactured equivalents.
There remains a challenge for the industry of getting vehicle buyers to accept that remanufactured components are, literally, and in every respect, 'as good as new'. It would clearly be unacceptable to start covertly using such 'second life' parts on the production line - an honest and above-board awareness campaign would be needed, either appealing to the buyer's environmental better nature or linked to a price advantage.
Hard-nosed fleet buyers might lead the way, being prepared to take new vehicles with a specified percentage of remanufactured content, in return for an up-front price reduction. When those vehicles came to be sold on or part-exchanged at three or four years old, with 100,000km or more of operation behind them, their detailed 'component history' would be of no concern to a bargain-seeking second owner.
Published on Monday, March 09, 2009
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