Pioneering aluminium recycling reclaims over 50,000 tonnes-the weight of 200,000 XE body shells-in one year.

• Pioneering closed-loop aluminium recycling reclaims over 50,000 tonnes - the weight of 200,000 XE body shells  - in one year
• ‘REALCAR’ Aluminium recycling prevented more than 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent from entering the atmosphere in the same period.
• Fitting celebration of the first full year of sales for the aluminium Jaguar XE: the first vehicle in the world to incorporate this recycled grade of aluminium.

As the Jaguar XE celebrates its first full-year of sales, ‘REALCAR’, the pioneering recycled aluminium project that contributes to the awarding winning saloon’s aluminium-intensive body has reached a significant milestone.

Jaguar Land Rover has reclaimed over 50,000 tonnes of aluminium scrap, the weight of 200,000 XE body shells, back into the production process during 2015/16, preventing more than 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent from entering the atmosphere by not using primary aluminium material.

The figures are a result of project ‘REALCAR’ which involves 11 UK press shops implementing a closed-loop, segregating waste aluminium scrap so that it can be sent back into production to be re-melted into recycled aluminium sheet for use in Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. 

The Jaguar Land Rover-led research project, part funded by Innovate UK, also saw the development of a recycled aluminium-based alloy which can accept a higher percentage of the recovered scrap. In 2014, the Jaguar XE became the first car in the world to use this innovative high-strength aluminium alloy, developed by project partner Novelis.

More than £7m has been invested across Jaguar Land Rover’s own Halewood, Castle Bromwich and Solihull press shops to install intricate segregation systems to capture and distribute the aluminium scrap for re-melting, reducing waste, retaining higher quality and value in the material.

Recovering aluminium in this way offers huge sustainability benefits, with aluminium recycling requiring up to 95% less energy than primary aluminium production.

Nick Rogers, Group Engineering Director, said: “Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Jaguar Land Rover. We are driven by the desire to produce increasingly world-class, light-weight, vehicles, but we also want to be world leading in how we build them.”

“Innovative projects such as REALCAR demonstrate our commitment to meeting our sustainability challenges head-on. Its success so far marks a significant step towards our goal of having up to 75% recycled aluminium content in our vehicle body structures by 2020.”

The structural grade of recycled aluminium has since been tested and introduced in the lightweight aluminium bodies of the All-New Jaguar XF and F-PACE models.

REALCAR is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s circular economy strategy to improve resource efficiency across the business.