Automotive Remanufacturing in a Changing Market : Challenges and Opportunities in a market with a growing share of electric cars

Abstract: This doctoral thesis deals with closed-loop supply chains, which include remanufacturing. Remanufacturing can be described as an industrial process to bring back a used good into an “as-good-as-new” condition. Furthermore, focus is put on one of the largest global industry sectors: the automotive industry. The objective of this doctoral thesis is to provide an exploration of the automotive remanufacturing industry and to identify current and future challenges and opportunities with special consideration of a growing share of EVs. This objective is reached by:conducting the literature research on automotive part remanufacturing   and the latest electric vehicle (EV) technologies,performing interviews and questionnaires with experts from the automotive part remanufacturing industry, andanalyzing and visualizing the processes of automotive part remanufacturing. Firstly, this thesis brings up an exploration of the challenges this industry is facing today: difficulties in the sourcing and returning of used automotive parts, challenges to identify and disassembly parts, difficulties implementing industrial processes to bring the used parts back into an “as-good-as-new” condition and obstacles to handle and recycle the parts which cannot be reused in an economic and ecological way. Secondly, this thesis deals with matters resulting from the latest trends in the phase of technical transition towards EVs. This means, for example, new parts (e.g., electric motors, battery packs), new market actors (e.g., Tesla) and different remanufacturing processes (e.g., high-voltage battery remanufacturing) are offering both opportunities and risks: potential for new business, but at the same time, capital-intensive investments into know-how (e.g., schooling, specifications, staff) and machinery and handling new sorts of waste (e.g., hazardous components and materials of batteries). In a final step, these current and future opportunities and challenges are evaluated, and recommendations for industrial actions are given.