Audi has partnered with Reiling Glas Recycling, Saint-Gobain Glass and Saint-Gobain Sekurit to create “Glass loop” project., to demonstrate how material cycles can be reused for the mass production of vehicles. These partners spent about a year testing ways to make new windshields for the Audi Q4 E-tron from defective automotive glass.

“If we process non-repairable automotive glass to make it suitable for automotive production again, we need less raw materials overall and avoid degrading the quality of non-repairable automotive windows. No longer subject to repair »– explains Philipp Eder, head of the circular economy project in the supply chain at Audi.

Audi: redesigned windshields for the Q4 E-tron

Process glass processing now ready for serial production. In practice, old car windows are first crushed using an innovative recycling process, and then all unnecessary elements such as adhesive residues are removed.

The glass granules obtained in this way are melted and introduced into the production process of new automotive glass plates: proportion of recycled content in this new glass made in this way can achieve 30%.

From the month September 2023windshields made with this new glass recycling process will be used on the production lineAudi Q4 E-tron. The goal is to supply enough recycled glass to sustain the production of windshields using this process for the lifetime of the Q4 E-tron.

Audi: towards carbon neutrality

The “GlassLoop” project is part of Audi’s “Act4Impact” program: its goal is to make Audi’s supply chain treat people and the environment with maximum respect. This commitment was recently recognized with the German Sustainability Project Award in the category “Recycling Concept”, awarded by the German Service Quality Institute, the NTV news network and the magazine Dup Unternehmer.

The aim of the circular economy is to preserve the quality and quality of materials for as long as possible so that they can be reused in the automotive industry. Thus, Audi is interested in consumer materials that come from end-of-life customer vehiclesto reduce degradation of materials during the recycling process.

Audi aims for 2050achieving carbon neutrality for its production sites: the German manufacturer has launched the “Mission: Zero” program to reduce the environmental impact in the areas of production and logistics. This environmental program also supports the efficient use of water and resources, as well as the protection and conservation of biodiversity.

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