Automotive group Renault has launched a new entity dedicated to the circular economy, giving it the name The Future Is Neutral, reports Leatherbiz.

It has said the new entity is the first company to operate across “the entire automotive circular economy value chain”.

In a context of “energy transition”, scarcity of resources and inflation in the price of raw materials, Renault said it aimed to increase significantly the proportion of recycled materials in cars. It said that between 20% and 30% of the materials in new vehicles today are recycled, taking into account recycling from all industries.

But it also made the point that 85% of the materials in cars are recyclable and claimed that cars themselves represent “the most under-exploited resource” in the automotive industry, adding tat 11 million vehicles reach end of life each year in Europe alone.

It said The Future Is Neutral will encourage better use of available materials and will aim to become leader in the closed-loop automotive circular economy. It announced Jean-Philippe Bahuaud (pictured) as chief executive of the new entity.

He said the new company would “push the automotive industry towards resource neutrality, extracting from each vehicle the largest possible amount of material needed to manufacture a new model”.