Aspiring Towards Automotive Circularity: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

The circular economy concept has emerged as an alternative economic paradigm to the established linear economy approach. With emphasis on limiting raw material inputs and generating value from waste outputs, there is growing interest in circular related models. The adoption of circular practices has gained significant traction amongst firms, especially within the automotive industry, which is one of the world’s highest polluting industries. The automotive sector is undergoing significant transformation towards environmentally sustainable approaches, with circular economy strategies offering a promising pathway for exploration. This presents new challenges for managers and policymakers, as successful implementation is contingent on contextual factors that play an important role in promoting or preventing the adoption of circular economy strategies/practices. There is an expanding yet fragmented body of literature on circular economy adoption in the automotive industry. Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the core circular economy considerations from an automotive industry perspective and provides a comprehensive consolidation of the contextual drivers and barriers of circular economy implementation in the context of the automotive industry. Insights on future automotive business model opportunities embedded within a circular economy approach are presented and future research agendas proposed based on gaps identified from the literature.