Automotive lifecycle

The Audi Q4 e-tron not only produces zero emissions when it’s driven, but is also handed over to customers at dealerships in Europe and the US as a net carbon neutral product. For World Environment Day 2022, it represents the perfect illustration of how Audi is approaching mobility, taking an holistic approach in which every phase of a vehicle’s life is important, not just that it operates with zero emissions.

In 2022 the slogan for World Environment Day is ‘Only One Earth’ – which interestingly was the slogan for the 1972 conference in Stockholm, where the annual global event was first instituted.

It’s a simple message, and even the simplest strategies can make a significant difference, like conserving and reusing resources.

From the origins of raw materials right through to recycling the vehicle at the end of its ‘road life’, each phase must be optimised to reduce the impact on the environment and climate.

Using the Audi Q4 e-tron as an example, the brand identifies four phases – supply chain, vehicle production, utilisation phase and recycling – with each being as important as the next in the overall picture.

From the outset, the Audi Q4 e-tron production at the Zwickau plant is net carbon neutral – using renewable electricity largely generated by hydro-electric power plants, wind and solar parks in Germany and its immediate neighbours. Thanks to its own natural-gas co-generation plant, the Zwickau facility is able to cover the remainder of its electricity requirements, with the co-generation plant’s CO₂ emissions as well as the use of natural gas in other manufacturing processes offset through carbon credits from international projects that meet the Gold Standard’s or Verified Carbon Standard’s exacting criteria.

Throughout the vehicle’s life, from raw materials right through to delivery, Audi works only with companies that take their corporate and social responsibilities seriously. As early as 2018, the brand initiated the Audi CO₂ program in the supply chain, which lets the carmaker and its suppliers put their heads together in pinpointing ways to curb emissions, like using only certified green electricity exclusively in the energy-intensive production of the vehicle’s battery cells. Indeed the manufacture of powerful batteries accounts for almost half (about 46 percent) of the total energy required to produce an electric vehicle.

AUDI AG is the first carmaker to have received the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative’s Chain of Custody certification for maximising sustainable aluminium production in keeping with ASI standards, and is also recognised for using recyclates — materials processed from recycled waste — in more and more components of the finished vehicle. 

The Q4 e-tron, contains 27 components that contain recycled material – largely those used for insulation and damping. In addition, many visible surfaces, including floor coverings and parts of the luggage compartment lining, are similarly made with recycled materials. The Puls fabric, which is combined with artificial leather, is composed of recyclates and repurposed PET bottles are turned into a yarn, that when woven into a fabric, match the visual and tactile quality standards of traditional textile upholstery.

Of course electromobility is only as green as the electricity it uses whilst in operation, so customers are encouraged to recharge using electricity generated from 100-percent renewable energy sources. The way you drive too, will impact the efficiency of any vehicle.

Fast forward to the end of a vehicle’s ‘service life’ and it’s time for the Q4 e-tron to be recycled. Its battery cells for example, which can still deliver a high proportion of their original performance, can be repurposed to continue storing electricity even after the vehicle is retired. 

Working with utilities companies, ‘second-life’ electric car batteries are used as stationary storage solutions for wind turbines and photovoltaic systems so that these do not have to be disconnected from the grid when there is a temporary surplus in electricity production. What’s more, as an energy source independent of local grid capacities, second-life battery storage can supply the power for fast-charging infrastructure, such as at events.

Audi is also trialling a charging system – the Audi charging hub – using these batteries at the heart.

Only when batteries can no longer perform these tasks are they recycled using cutting-edge concepts that permit recovery of the individual raw materials for reuse in new batteries. The recycling pilot plant for lithium-ion batteries in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, is just one facility devoted to this. Thanks to the latest processes, the plant achieves a 70-percent recycling rate for raw materials, including cobalt, lithium, nickel, aluminium, manganese and graphite. In the longer term, an even higher rate of 97 percent is targeted.

The effect over time means more efficient use of materials and reduced emissions across the board, without even factoring in the ongoing advances in technology and manufacturing processes that are continually refined for greater efficiency.