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Aluminum, which is much less dense than steel, is rapidly becoming the material of choice for automakers looking to create smarter, lighter, safer, and more sustainable vehicles. Compared to steel, an aluminum vehicle body can be up to 45% lighter while maintaining equal stiffness and load-carrying capacity. This significant weight reduction offers numerous advantages, especially as the automotive industry shifts toward electrification. 

Alumobility , an organization dedicated to advancing the use of aluminum in the automotive industry, recently published a compelling white paper titled “When it Comes to Aluminum, Less is More” in Aluminum International Today. This article highlights eight major reasons why aluminum is the material of the future for automakers. The benefits detailed include improved efficiency and range, secondary weight and cost savings, enhanced safety, increased vehicle durability, reduced corrosion, greater payload and towing capacity, manufacturing efficiency, and better circularity through recycling.  To explore these advantages and understand how aluminum is revolutionizing the future of mobility, read the full Alumobility article here.

We are excited to announce that Novelis has been shortlisted for the prestigious World Sustainability Awards 2024 for our entry “Novelis Partners with OEMs for Closed-Loop Recycling” in the Sustainable Technology Provider Award category. This recognition celebrates our commitment to sustainability and innovation in the aluminum industry.

Overview of the Entry:

Novelis, the global leader in aluminum recycling and a key supplier to the automotive industry, has established groundbreaking, closed-loop-recycling partnerships with several major automakers. These partnerships allow us to reclaim and recycle aluminum scrap generated during OEMs’ manufacturing processes, turning it back into high-quality aluminum sheets for new vehicle production.

The Challenge:

The automotive market presents unique challenges in recycling. Traditionally, automakers sold their aluminum scrap to recyclers, leading to inefficiencies and unnecessary costs. This process often downgraded the high-value aluminum scrap, preventing it from being reused in new automotive parts.

Our Approach:

Recognizing these inefficiencies, Novelis develops innovative closed-loop recycling systems in collaboration with automakers. These systems ensure the highest value use of aluminum scrap, maintaining the integrity of high-value aluminum sheets and reducing carbon emissions.

Outcome:

As the world’s largest recycler of aluminum, Novelis leverages the infinite recyclability of aluminum to deliver sustainable solutions. Recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the energy required to produce primary aluminum, reducing carbon emissions by up to 95%. Our closed-loop-recycling partnerships help automakers reduce their environmental impact, meet regulatory requirements, and appeal to eco-conscious consumers.

About Novelis:

Novelis is the leading producer of flat-rolled aluminum products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminum. We partner with customers in the automotive, beverage packaging, aerospace and specialties industries to deliver sustainable solutions across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Novelis operates 31 facilities in nine countries and employs approximately 13,190 people. Novelis is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group.

Our Commitment to Sustainability:

At Novelis, sustainability is at the core of everything we do. We work closely with our customers to leverage aluminum’s unique properties, delivering solutions that meet their needs and create a more circular economy. Our expertise in closed-loop recycling and our ability to partner with industry leaders enable us to drive sustainability forward.

We are honored to be shortlisted for the World Sustainability Awards 2024 and look forward to continuing our journey toward a more sustainable future.

Read more about our sustainability efforts here.

Alumobility, in partnership with Porsche, unveils the findings of their latest study focusing on aluminum lightweight design. Titled “Aluminum Lightweight Study: A Conversion of the Porsche Taycan Top Hat from Mixed Material to an Aluminum Design,” the study explores the potential benefits of utilizing aluminum in vehicle construction.

Find more information on the announcement click here.

From the collaborative minds of Novelis’ top automotive experts Jamie Zinser, Vice President, Global Automotive, Xavier Varone, Global Technical Director, and Don Whitacre, Director, Automotive Technical Development, a recently published Thought Leadership shows why aluminum is now the fastest-growing automotive material and the key to success for automakers seeking to transition to lighter, greener and simpler to manufacture vehicles. 

Pound for pound, kilo for kilo, no other material can match aluminum when it comes to delivering the strength, durability and low-carbon footprint demanded by today’s increasingly innovative vehicle designs while also significantly reducing weight. 

Read the full Thought Leadership piece here. 

In a recent article in MetalForming magazine, Mario Greco, Director of Strategy for Global Automotive at Novelis, discusses the transformative landscape of the automotive industry and the pivotal role aluminum plays in its electrification journey.  

For an in-depth look at our latest aluminum solutions supporting the electrification of the automotive industry, read the full article on MetalForming magazine’s website: MetalForming Magazine – Recent Developments in Aluminum Grades 

Novelis and thyssenkrupp Materials Services aim to set new standards for end-of-vehicle-life recycling by developing a digital hub called Automotive Circularity Platform (ACP). The goal for ACP is to be an open platform that will enable access to larger quantities of high-quality recycling materials. A first step will include the creation of a prototype for comprehensive testing and evaluation purposes.

The companies have formed a partnership to digitalize the market for secondary materials recovered from automobiles at the end of the consumer-use cycle and increase its transparency by creating an ecosystem for the automotive end-of-life value chain.

While closed-loop aluminium recycling of production scrap has become a sustainability best practice in the automotive industry in recent years, the loop at the end of a vehicle’s life has yet to be closed. 

In a market that is thriving with diverse opportunities and on the brink of exciting growth, the partnership between Novelis and thyssenkrupp Materials Services is a major step toward achieving a circular economy and reducing carbon emissions. 

ACP will be a digital marketplace that connects stakeholders throughout the automotive end-of-life value chain and empowers automotive suppliers to capture and reuse aluminium and other materials, such as steel, plastics, glass, rubber, and more.

Presently, internal combustion engines can account for up to 80 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions during automobile lifecycles. However, studies suggest that due to the rise in electric vehicles by 2040 emissions from material production may represent 60 percent of total automobile lifecycle emissions. Thus, the reduction of pollutants from tailpipes will become secondary to increasing supply chain and manufacturing efficiencies, as top targets for decarbonization. A circular ecosystem with unprecedented collaboration between all stakeholders will play an essential role in the automotive industry reaching its climate targets.

“ACP is a major step forward in creating an open, accessible trading platform for materials at the end of the consumer-use cycle for companies seeking to fulfill broader and deeper commitments to sustainability and circularity. Not only will ACP increase circularity through optimized material flows and thus enable access to larger quantities of high-quality recycling materials, while minimizing waste to landfill, it will also create a transparent and trusted connection for all stakeholders to create and deploy their own value-generating recycling processes.”

Michael Hahne, Vice President and General Manager Automotive, Novelis Europe

“Novelis and thyssenkrupp Materials Services have formed a relationship that leverages the best of our companies’ respective expertise, the strengths of which are complementary in every respect. thyssenkrupp Materials Services delivers unmatched materials knowledge and experience in digital supply chains and market access to a broad, complex sector. Novelis brings in unique expertise in fields such as aluminium recycling, reuse processes and development of aluminium alloys with high-recycled content. With the idea of developing an automotive circularity platform for aluminium, we are consistently pursuing the path of our sustainability strategy BEYOND at thyssenkrupp Materials Services.”

Sebastian Smerat, Head of Customer Innovation at thyssenkrupp Materials Services

For aluminium in particular, recycling is the epitome of sustainable practices representing an approximate 95% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the more energy intensive requirements of primary production. Furthermore, aluminium is infinitely recyclable with no loss of properties including strength, lightness, durability, and formability. The many advantages aluminium offers contribute to its increasing use across industries seeking to achieve greater sustainability.

The benefits of shifting to a circular model include:

  • Reducing waste 
  • Decreasing need for primary materials and associated supply chain disruptions
  • Lessening the need for primary extraction processes and associated higher emissions
  • Improving regulatory compliance and reduces associated costs
  • Creating opportunities to provide end-of-life services such as dismantling, recycling, and recovery of materials and marketing of remanufactured/refurbished components
  • Building consumer trust and loyalty, especially among younger consumers who value sustainability and social responsibility

By Jamie Zinser, Vice President, Global Automotive, Novelis Inc.

ATLANTA, June 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — As the global automotive industry strives to reach ambitious sustainability targets, most notably regarding carbon emissions, it continues to gravitate toward the world’s infinitely recyclable material—aluminum. In fact, aluminum can be recycled and reused endlessly without losing its material properties. This phenomenon is the foundation of a circular economy for the automotive industry fueled by closed-loop and end-of-life recycling.

Read the full report here.

ATLANTA, May 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Novelis Inc., a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider and the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, today announced the start up of its new roll forming development line. The new development line will help Novelis meet industry demand for a process that can produce large volumes of high-strength aluminum auto parts.

Read the full report here.

From scrap to valuable resource: In the Car2Car research project under the leadership of the BMW Group, new technologies are developed for the optimized recycling of end-of-life vehicles. As the world’s largest, most efficient, and technologically advanced aluminium recycler, Novelis is contributing to the project by bringing its expertise in the recycling of aluminium. 

Car2Car, a consortium of partners from industry and science, is conducting fundamental work on the circular economy in the automotive sector. Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, innovative dismantling and intelligent sorting processes are being tested to increase the circularity for aluminium, steel, glass, copper, and plastics in the automotive sector. 

BMW has set itself a target to increase the share of secondary materials in vehicle production to 50%, making increased use of post-consumer materials. Novelis supports BMW in these efforts by supplying the automaker with aluminium sheet containing between 65%-75% recycled content today. The ambition of both, Novelis and BMW is to produce an outer skin panel from 100% recycled aluminium within this project.

“The Car2Car project is another important step toward economically and ecologically sensible circularity in the automotive industry,” says Michael Hahne, Vice President, Automotive, Novelis Europe. “The intelligent, efficient reuse of post-consumer material preserves resources, significantly lowers environmental impact, and, at the same time, reduces dependency on raw material imports.”  

Closed-loop aluminium is a perfect example of how the consistent use of recycled materials helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy needs: recycling aluminium uses only 5% of the energy required to produce primary aluminium, lowering carbon emissions by as much as 95%.

Artificial intelligence (AI) as an enabler for an efficient circular economy 

The Car2Car project is working toward an ideal break-even point between dismantling and post-shredding technology in terms of quality, economics and ecology. Currently, recycling processes still entail high manual workload and losses in material purity. Car2Car uses AI-based sensor technology with recyclable material recognition that identifies different steel and aluminium alloys. This way, a significantly higher-grade purity of the recovered raw materials can be achieved, and the value of the material can be preserved.

The aim of Car2Car is to provide well-founded recommendations for innovative framework conditions that enable shifting from conventional, linear process chains to higher value creation through a circular economy model. 

Novelis has worked with industry partners and automotive engineers to enhance the design of our EV battery enclosure solution. Novelis Director of Strategy, Global Automotive Mario Greco joined SAE International to discuss how we are tailoring our innovations for automaker’s needs.

Read the full article here

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