A circular car industry could slash carbon emissions – here’s how

A circular car industry could slash carbon emissions – here’s how

Accenture research shows that circular economy approaches, next to electrification, are an essential piece of the puzzle in efforts to align automotive mobility with a 1.5-degree scenario by reducing lifecycle carbon emissions per passenger km by up to 75% by 2030.

Realignment around common circularity language can jointly drive transformative solutions for the automotive industry.

Circular economy solutions are part of four strategic pathways: decarbonising energy usage, establishing circular material flows, extending and optimising product lifetime and improving capacity utilisation during vehicle usage.



The automotive industry is dramatically overshooting its estimated carbon and resource budgets. At the same time, car-based mobility is set to grow globally by around 70% by 2030 (both in terms of passenger kilometres and predicted vehicle stock in a business-as-usual use scenario). These changes are happening at a time when estimations show that emissions need to decrease by around 50% by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels.











The World Economic Forum has created a series of initiatives to promote circularity.

1. Scale360° Playbook was designed to build lasting ecosystems for the circular economy and help solutions scale.













Scale360° Playbook