What do we see?
The average mileage of cars that were brought to official demolition centres in Belgium has increased from 190,000km in 2019 to 193,000km in 2020.
What’s the aim?
The goal of a circular economy is to use materials as long as possible. For cars, however, we need to take into account the potentially negative trade-off of emissions during the use phase. In other words, using cars longer before returning them to official demolition sites can only indicate a more circular use of cars if this prolonged use doesn’t negatively impact the use-phase emissions. In addition, the mileage of cars at the end of their life is a direct indication of the use intensity over their complete lifetime. If this number rises, it may illustrate an increased durability of cars as a product. Finally, we must also take into account the extent to which more polluting vehicles are removed from the market, consider the benefits of such actions from a lifecycle perspective, and look at the pollution potential of the vehicles in combination with their lifetime.
What does this indicator measure?
Since 2019, the average mileage of demolished cars is included in the annual reports from Febelauto, the EPR organisation in Belgium. The data has been obtained from Carpass.
