INTERVIEW: More metal to be extracted from ‘mines on wheels’: European Aluminium’s director

The EU government has shown greater appreciation for vehicles as 'mines on wheels': the new circularity legislation it has pre-agreed is meant to boost recovery of critical raw materials from vehicles at the end of their useful life , including aluminum.

EU End-of-Life Vehicles Directive and the 3R Type-Approval Directive have been revised throughout. The new rules cover the vehicle's entire lifecycle, better aligning car designs with circularity objectives, and once in force, should strengthen Europe's access to its own secondary raw materials, according to European Aluminium, a Brussels-based industry association.

Passport to make more data available

The Circularity Vehicle Passport, a novelty in the upcoming legislation, will be the bridge that brings vehicle designers and vehicle end-of-life operators -- dismantlers and recyclers – in closer contact.

The proposed digital tool will provide the latter with information on a vehicle's material composition, including the presence of critical raw materials, recycled content, and key components, and is expected to uphold the supply of quality secondary raw materials.

"This transparency is essential to enable more efficient dismantling, better sorting of materials and higher-quality recycling outcomes," Patrik Ragnarsson, head of mobility at European Aluminium, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

While the current EU circularity framework is primarily focused on passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, the new regulation will include trucks and buses five years after entry into force. EU circularity rules apply to vehicles placed on the EU market, and so imported vehicles must meet the key requirements too, according to Ragnarsson.

The revision is important given that aluminum use in European cars has increased significantly in recent years. Today, the metal represents roughly 10% of the weight of vehicles entering recycling facilities, and this share is expected to grow further, he said.

At present, there are no binding minimum recycled content targets for aluminum or steel in vehicles, and the European Commission's proposal foresees a feasibility study before deciding whether to introduce such targets, said Ragnarsson.

However, aluminum recovery from legally treated end-of-life vehicles is already very high, so the main improvement from the new regulation lies not in additional kilograms recovered, but in boosting the quality of recycling through alloy separation and contamination reduction, according to Ragnarsson.

The existing framework, with its overall recycling and recovery targets by vehicle weight, has helped improve recycling rates, but has done little to safeguard the scrap quality. "Aluminum is often recovered, but not in a way that enables its high-value, closed-loop recycling back into similar alloys and applications," Ragnarsson explained.

Scrap to be separated into alloy families

To address the issue, the new regulation introduces distinct quality requirements for aluminum scrap; to meet them, the material will have to be sorted into several grades.

Starting three years after the entry into force, the recovered aluminum shall be sorted into a wrought fraction containing all aluminum with a silicon content below 1.5% and a cast fraction containing aluminum with a silicon content above 1.5%, according to Ragnarsson.

Six years after entry into force, these two qualities will be expanded into four alloy families:

• Aluminum fraction with silicon content higher than 1.5%, copper content equal or lower than 0.5% and iron content equal or lower than 0.2%
• Aluminum fraction with silicon content higher than 1.5% and that does not meet the above composition requirements for copper and iron
• Aluminum fraction with silicon content equal or lower than 1.5%, magnesium equal or lower than 1.5%, copper content equal or lower than 0.3% and zinc content equal or lower than 0.3%
• Aluminum fraction with silicon content equal or lower than 1.5% and that does not meet the above composition requirements for magnesium, copper and zinc.

This more granular approach to aluminum recycling will boost the return of scrap metal into high-end applications, such as future vehicles, rather than downgrading it to lower-value uses.

Vehicles of unknown whereabouts

The new legislation will tackle another issue that causes the biggest losses of metal that could otherwise be derived from the auto market -- the so-called vehicles of unknown whereabouts. The term refers to vehicles that end up in illegal treatment routes.

These are de-registered cars, whose final destination is not reported. Usually, they are dismantled and scrapped outside authorized treatment facilities, or exported under incorrect conditions, leading to lost value and weaker environmental controls, according to Ragnarsson.

The European Commission estimates that each year between three and four million vehicles in the EU disappear in this way. That wipeout results in an annual loss of 450,000 to 800,000 mt of aluminum, Platts calculates, given that the average aluminum content per vehicle increased from 151 kg in 2016 to 174 kg in 2019 and 205kg in 2022.

It is now projected to reach 256 kg by 2030, Ragnarsson told Platts, referring to the association's latest study on aluminum content in European cars.

"The upward trend is clear: aluminum intensity in vehicles continues to rise, driven by lightweighting, electrification and the need to offset battery weight in electric vehicles," said Ragnarsson.

He specified that battery EVs typically contain higher aluminum content than conventional internal combustion vehicles, particularly in body structures and battery enclosures.

"Regarding where the metal is concentrated in vehicles, the same study finds that engine components and wheels together account for 45% of the total aluminum content in cars, while the largest increase in aluminum content over the next five years is expected from EV-specific components (battery enclosure and EV motor housing), as well as from Body In White, Chassis and Closures," said Ragnarsson.

Platts' assessment of European high-grade aluminum scrap from auto shreds, at Eur1,950 ($2,270)/mt on March 9, gained 8% since the beginning of 2026.