Audi reduces carbon footprint by using closed aluminium circulation

Since 1994, Audi has been plying aluminium in its car bodies, but aluminium production is very energy-intensive. That is the reason Audi has been using a closed circulation of this material. It was introduced in 2017 at the Neckarsulm factory, and at the beginning of this year also at the Ingolstadt plant. This mechanism saves valuable primary raw materials and makes cars enter service with a more favourable ecological balance. In the production process of the Audi A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8 model lines, as well as the Audi e-tron and e-tron Sportback components, compressors in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm use recycled aluminium.

Marco Philippi, Director, Supply Strategy said: “Efficient and economical resource management is as important to us as the reduction of CO2 we emit. The amount of energy consumed for the re-use of recycled aluminium is up to 95% lower than that needed to make primary aluminium.”

At the Audi factory in Neckarsulm closed aluminium circulation was introduced in early 2017. Aluminium sheet fragments generated in the pressing plant are transferred back to the supplier. This converts them into an aluminium sheet of equivalent quality, and Audi uses this recovered material in the production process. The Neckarsulm plant uses this closed aluminium loop in cooperation with two suppliers, which increases the amount of reused aluminium. This allowed 2019 to reduce CO2 emissions by around 150,000 tonnes - two-thirds more than the year before, when the reduction was 90,000 tonnes. A recently closed aluminium loop has also been introduced at the Ingolstadt plant. At the factory in Győr, this process is planned to be introduced next year, and in subsequent plants and model lines, it will take some time.

Switching to electric drive increases the percentage of CO₂ emissions that the supply chain is responsible for. According to forecasts for average fleet emissions, both in this area and in previous production processes, by 2025, Audi will generate a quarter of current CO₂ emissions. That is why the company cooperates with suppliers, trying to find resources that will affect this early production phase.

Already in 2018, the company drove a program with its suppliers, which focused to identify ways to further reduce CO2 emissions in the supply chain. During 30 workshops with suppliers, 50 measures were identified to reduce CO2 emissions.