In a circular economy initiative that’s also likely to extend to the agricultural tractor sector in the not-too-distant future, Renault Trucks has announced it’s creating a Used Parts Factory near its assembly plant at Vénissieux, France, where its trucks will be dismantled and their parts reused or recycled.
The move, aimed at reducing natural resource usage and the environmental impact of the brand’s trucks’, is the logical next step after the used trucks repurposing and remanufacturing operations conducted at Renault’s Used Trucks Factory at Bourg-en-Bresse and its plant in Limoges respectively.
During the past five years, Renault Trucks – which is part of the Volvo Group – has invested in the circular economy, applying a three-pronged approach that consists of regenerating, repurposing and recycling used trucks.
The brand is conducting numerous initiatives to extend the lifetime of the vehicles it sells. For example, used trucks are remanufactured according to strict industrial processes at the Used Trucks Factory, vehicles are updated with the latest technologies in the reconditioning centre in Lyon, and there are also used special-series models for sale.
Pushing on with its plan, the manufacturer has now announced the creation of its Used Parts Factory, an industrial site devoted entirely to recycling trucks and reusing the parts and raw materials recovered from them. The initiative was backed by a preliminary feasibility study conducted in 2020 by Renault Trucks in tandem with Indra Automobile Recycling and the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME).
The company is opening a dedicated disassembly plant in the heart of its manufacturing facility at Vénissieux. This 3,000 square metre plant, built as close as possible to the logistics centre, will handle used Renault Trucks vehicles with high mileages, along with some parts that still have substantial potential for reuse. Renault Trucks vehicles and their components are, the brand says, designed to last for more than 1.5 million kilometres.
End-of-life Renault Trucks will enter the Used Parts Factory to be dismantled. Operators will remove the components previously identified as suitable for reuse (engine, gearbox, cabin, fuel tank, bumpers, deflectors and so on). About 95 per cent of the components in a typical Renault truck can be recycled.
Once the parts intended for reuse have been removed, the other components will be recycled. The rails, for example, will be cut up then sent to the nearby foundry. The metal extracted from the parts will be used to manufacture a new vehicle.
The components identified for re-use will then be checked, cleaned and labelled for listing and traceability purposes. These used spare parts will then be sent to the nearby Renault Trucks spare parts store, just like new spare parts.
The used spare parts will be marketed under the label “Used Parts by Renault Trucks” and will be made available to dealers on the manufacturer’s online spare parts marketplace. These parts will be covered by a manufacturer’s warranty and will be 50 to 60 per cent cheaper, on average, than new parts.
www.renault-trucks.com
