The impact of vehicle component remanufacturing: A sustainable solution for the automotive industry

Remanufacturing or refurbishing the existing components to a condition similar to the new ones is becoming more popular in the automotive industry due to the high manufacturing cost and environmental impact of creating new components. This paper studies the remanufacturing of braking systems for Chery Omoda 5 electric vehicles (EV) since EV is a new technology in Malaysia and is well known to have a substantial environmental impact. The primary motivation for this research is to decrease the use of raw materials and reduce carbon emissions. The methodology used in this study is the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the brake based on two conditions; the new brake or the remanufacturing component. Besides that, methods are also used to identify materials being used, review of relevant literature, examine manufacturer documentation, and compare emission factors from existing databases. The findings show that remanufacturing has the potential to significantly decrease carbon emissions by up to 93.6% and reduce aluminium alloy utilization by 95.4%. The results present substantial environmental and economic advantages, showing remanufacturing as a feasible approach for sustainable vehicle manufacturing. Finally, the remanufacturing process of braking systems for the Chery Omoda 5 EV model significantly improves sustainability by reducing environmental impact and preserving valuable materials.