Resource demand caused by automotive technological change and analysis of Total Material Requirement

The automobile industry has been one of the most biggest and influential industries in the world. 90 million new cars were sold in 2015 and it is expected that increasing number of cars would be consumed in the next few... [ view full abstract ]

The automobile industry has been one of the most biggest and influential industries in the world. 90 million new cars were sold in 2015 and it is expected that increasing number of cars would be consumed in the next few decades. In recent years, next-generation vehicle including electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and hybrid vehicles have appeared. And the next generation automobile sales quantity is increasing year by year. In these types of innovative automobile technologies, a motor, a power control device and lithium ion battery which are not required for gasoline powered vehicles are necessary. By these changes, it is also thought that used materials for automobile will change and derive the increasing demand of non-ferrous metals such as copper and nickel for motors and batteries. On the other hand, the amount of precious metals such as rhodium and palladium used for catalyst per car is expected to decrease.
 In this research, TMR (Total Material Requirement) of various types of car is calculated through scenario analysis. TMR represents the quantity of substances taken out of the domestic and foreign environments during economic activities. TMR includes not only the flow of materials and resources directly consumed but also hidden flows like mining wastes including surface soils and waste rocks removed behind the mining activity. Examining the environmental load of automobiles, the most frequently considered is the amount of carbon dioxide emissions during driving. Next-generation vehicle is excellent when examining the environmental load by the amount of carbon dioxide emissions during driving compared with gasoline powered automobile. However, many copper and rare metals etc. are used for production stage. These substances have a large environmental burden in the mining and refining stages. To evaluate the environmental load different from the amount of carbon dioxide emissions at the use stage, we calculated the TMR of various types automobile. Calculating the constituent materials of gasoline and electric cars, iron accounts for about 60 to 70%. Also, the amount of copper used in gasoline cars is about 1%, and the amount of copper used in electric vehicles is about 10%. On the other hand, when calculating the TMR of a gasoline-powered car, iron, copper and aluminum account for about 20% each. Also, the element used for the catalyst is also large. Next, when calculating the TMR of the electric vehicle, the copper is about half, and then nickel and lithium used for the battery. From the estimated TMR of an automobile, we clarified quantitatively that the several metals and materials should be paid more careful attention during the end of life vehicle treatment process to avoid inefficient use or dissipation in the recycling stages.