GKN Automotive Examines Life Cycle Analyses in Automotive Applications

With the average car containing close to 30,000 parts, the automotive manufacturing sector has one of the most complex supply chains, creating challenges not limited to quality control, performance and cost. Sean Worrall, chief engineer of product sustainability, GKN Automotive, recently examined life cycle analyses in automotive applications. Today, total life cycle impact – for both vehicles and components – is a prominent consideration for stakeholders and customers alike, with regulations such as the European Green Deal acting as critical drivers. This is asking new questions of designers and will influence the technologies we see in vehicles moving forward. To this end, Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs) are a powerful tool, enabling manufacturers to unearth the environmental impact of every variable of a product across its entire life cycle. Using these insights, manufacturers can identify opportunities to reduce the total emissions – both embedded and operational – associated with a product. Worrall explores three cases of how LCAs can deliver tangible results in the drive for sustainable manufacturing: Curbing embedded emissions Adopting a recover, remanufacture, reuse approach Curating a responsible supply chain Curbing embedded emissions

Traditionally, initiatives to make the automotive industry more sustainable have focused on reducing in-use greenhouse gas emissions, such as optimizing fuel economy. This comes as no surprise when you consider that road transport is currently responsible for more than 15 percent of global energy-related emissions, with most of that occurring at the tailpipe. However, for net zero emissions to be achieved by 2050, electric vehicle (EV) sales will need to reach around 60 percent of total sales of light-duty vehicles. This is an area that GKN Automotive can make a real difference. Our core offering of side shafts to global OEMs is powertrain-agnostic, and we have expanded our product portfolio to support EV production. To date, more than 2.5 million electrified vehicles have been produced with GKN Automotive’s eDrive systems, and since 2010, we have supplied components for over 15 million electric vehicles. As the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads continues to rise, embedded emissions in the manufacturing process will represent a much larger portion of lifetime emissions. It is here that manufacturers can make improvements to curb their embedded emissions. For example, by upgrading energy-intensive production equipment, as well as heating and air conditioning systems, our team at GKN Automotive contributed to a reduction in direct (Scope 1 and 2) CO2 emissions by 30 percent in 2024. Further reductions towards our 2045 net-zero target are being achieved through process optimizations, such as leakage reduction during compressed air production, furnace standby temperature reduction, and new manufacturing shutdown procedures to reduce energy use and emissions. Enabling the global transition goes hand in hand with achieving our own emissions reduction targets and by using Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) and LCA analysis at the design stage of a product, optimizing design, weight and material choices, we can show a significant reduction in embedded emissions. Adopting a recover, remanufacture, reuse approach Manufacturers can also take a ‘recover, re-manufacture, and re-use' approach. By taking parts from end-of-service vehicles and re-manufacturing them for a second life, teams can achieve significant savings. At GKN Automotive, we remanufacture 300,000 side shafts annually, resulting in a 63 percent reduction in embedded CO2 emissions compared to new products. This saves about 6.72 kg of CO2eq per part or over 2,000 tons yearly. Our plants also clean and recycle all the water used in the remanufacturing process, saving 40,000 liters per year. The use of LCAs here can help identify ways to improve the ease of removal, replacement, and installation of components, shifting to modular units that are designed to be dismantled and reused, thereby reducing the lifetime embedded emissions.