ACEA

Production: car makers reduce environmental impact

European auto manufacturers have significantly reduced the environmental impact of vehicle production in recent years. Per unit produced, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, waste, water use and VOC emissions have all decreased. At industry level, results are also influenced by the number of vehicles produced. In most cases, however, thanks to increased environmental efficiency, the rise in vehicle production from 2005 to 2007 was accompanied by a reduction of absolute emissions and consumption at the industry level, too. The figures concern passenger car manufacturing at production sites in the EU27.

As cars are equipped with more and more features to make them safer and more environmentally-friendly, the complexity of production increases as well, with negative effects on energy demand. However, manufacturers constantly work on improving energy efficiency. As a result, energy consumption per vehicle produced has decreased by 6.5%.
note The figures include direct and indirect energy consumption, i.e. from on-site and external energy suppliers.

CO2 emissions per vehicle produced decreased by 5%, mostly through efficiency increases, and somewhat helped by a warm winter in 2007. Differences in the trends on energy consumption (previous graph) and CO2 emissions have to do with changes in the energy mix available at the different production sites.
note As for energy, the figures include direct and indirect emissions, i.e. from on-site and external energy suppliers.

The amount of waste per vehicle went down 4.8%, thanks to efforts by the manufacturers to reduce waste.
note Scrap metal, which is recycled and then used as a secondary raw material, is not included.

Long-term strategies to reduce water consumption have made it possible to reduce the water use per car produced by almost 23%. This includes the increasing use of re-circulation technologies, which allows the reuse of water.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are organic solvents mainly emitted from paintshops. The graph shows the VOC emissions per car produced and the emissions of all passenger car manufacturers taken together. With new technologies such as water-based paints that replace solvent-based paints, manufacturers have been able to kg/unit reduce emissions by 14.3% per vehicle.

last updated 19/05/2009

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