Circular Economy and the Electric Vehicle Supply Chain

Through a combination of systematic and narrative review of academic literature and relevant grey literature, particularly United Nations and European Commission publications, this chapter explores the barriers and challenges to the circular economy of electric vehicle supply chains (EVSCs), followed by the different ways in which circular economy principles can be enhanced in EVSCs. This chapter also examines the barriers, including battery design issues, infrastructural challenges, critical raw material needs, data collection and traceability issues, economic and commercial challenges, consumer and market behaviour, and policy and regulatory gaps. Potential solutions and pathways to address and overcome these barriers have also been evaluated in this review, including recycling of EV battery designs, sustainable critical material production, stakeholder and data co-ordination drawing on artificial intelligence, particularly Internet of Things capabilities, and harmonising policy and governance gaps and discord. This chapter concludes by identifying and advocating pertinent future directions of research and development to enhance circularity in EVSCs.