
Engineering Circularity 2026
On June 9-10, 2026, moving into summer and adopting a new name to express its in-depth-focus on achieving automobile circular economy solutions, Automotive Circle’s conference on “Engineering Circularity” will gather, for the fifth time, its international audience of automotive sustainability experts to discuss advancements in circularity concepts and their industrial application.
In view of the anticipated EU Circular Economy Act, the conference particularly aims to present latest ideas and progress reports in the following areas:
- Achieving circularity of high-volume automotive materials and parts: plastics/composites, steels, light metals, rubber, glass
- Efficient sorting, chemical or mechanical recycling processes of polymer/plastic materials
- Non-downgrading, end-of-life recycling of steels, aluminium
- Enhanced availability of high-quality post-consumer scrap
- Efficient automotive battery recycling
- Recycling of electronics materials, e.g. copper, rare earths, magnets
- Replacing/avoiding Raw Materials of Concern, Substances of Concern
- Narrowing the loop – R-Strategy concepts beyond recycling and their application: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recover?
- Smart design-for-dismantling vehicle architectures
- Efficient data tracing and tracking across the vehicle life cycle
In that, the conference aims to provide answers to questions such as:
- How will material streams between OEM, Tier-1, material suppliers and recyclers have to be organised?
- How can end-of-life vehicles efficiently be efficiently dismantled to yield sorted, quality scrap materials – or reusable parts?
- How do vehicle architectures and/or material concepts have to be modified to foster circularity?
- To what extent will vehicle or car part properties have to be modified/adapted when using secondary materials?
In 2026 Automotive Circle has decided that Engineering Circularity will be taking place simultaneously with Automotive Interiors. Conducting the two Automotive Circle conferences Automotive Interiors and Engineering Circularity in parallel in 2026 offers a variety of synergies, with the possibility for participants of both conferences to interchange freely between both events, with joint sessions for part of the conference programs, with shared networking, and with a combined exhibition.
Engineering Circularity focuses on concepts and solutions to realise various R-Strategies in the automotive industry – and plastics/composite materials, mostly used in the automotive interior, pose the greatest challenge in this respect. Vice versa, Automotive Interiors presents latest concepts and ideas for future vehicle interior design – and realising designs that also enable material circularity is of growing importance in this area.
Be part of it!
We are looking forward to meeting you in Bad Nauheim (Germany) in June 2026!
Don’t miss any updates by following our hashtag: #ACEngineeringCircularity
Conference Agenda
| 7:00 AM |
Conference Registration |
|
| 8:30 AM |
Welcome and conference introduction |
Junaid Sheikh, Dr. Dirk Meine, Automotive Circle, DE |
Joint Plenary Session: Strategic Materiality |
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| 9:00 AM |
Material intelligence: Designing the next level of sustainable technologies |
Nathalie Bucher, Kia Europe GmbH, DE |
| 9:30 AM |
Decarbonization, Circular Economy and Seating Comfort |
Thomas Dillinger, Adient, DE |
| 10:00 AM |
Meet the speakers | Exhibition | Coffee and contacts |
|
Design for Circularity |
||
| 10:45 AM |
How the EU is regulating away an “Enabling Technology” – and therefore the necessary positioning of adhesive bonding technology for the 21st century |
Prof. Andreas Groß, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, DE |
| 11:45 AM |
Beyond recycling: Additive manufacturing for reduce, reuse and repair in automotive engineering |
Lukas Pelzer, Layer Performance GmbH, DE |
| 12:15 PM |
FutureCarProduction – Circular car body development – New production technologies to optimize CO2, recycled content and costs |
Prof. Dr. Stephan Krinke, Fraunhofer IST, DE; Axel Jahn, Fraunhofer IWS, DE |
| 12:45 PM |
Meet the speakers | Exhibition | Lunch break |
|
Solutions for Plastics and Composites |
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| 2:00 PM |
RecyClass: Advancing Plastic Circularity in the Automotive Sector |
Timothé Rondot, Plastics Recyclers Europe, BE |
| 2:30 PM |
Closing the loop for chrome plated trim on cars |
Dr. Markus Dahlhaus, BIA Kunststoff- & Galvanotechnik, DE |
| 3:00 PM |
Polyurethane mono-material concepts: Enabling closed-loop automotive recycling through material versatility and chemical recycling |
Ivo Erler, Covestro Deutschland AG, DE |
| 3:30 PM |
Use of recycled materials in automotive interiors – systemic solution for quality, availability, and compliance |
Dr. Michael Scriba, Certified Recycled Content CRC GmbH, DE |
| 4:00 PM |
Meet the speakers | Exhibition | Coffee and contacts |
|
Industrial Concepts |
||
| 4:30 PM |
Remanufacturing – a natural part of today’s truck business |
Linnea Petersson, Volvo Trucks AB, SE |
| 5:00 PM |
Car2Car: Driving circularity towards closed loops – Advanced dismantling and recycling solutions for automotive sustainability |
Hilke Schaer, Armin Emsermann, BMW Group, DE |
| 6:00 PM |
Meet the speakers | Exhibition | Get-together |
|
| 7:00 PM |
Networking dinner |
|
Circularity Assessment |
||
| 8:30 AM |
Leveraging circular engineering: A framework for assessing and enabling circular product development |
Dr. Alexander Christ, :em engineering methods AG, DE |
Battery Recycling |
||
| 9:00 AM |
Circular economy in practise: Toyota’s approach in Europe |
Florence Buffet, Toyota |
| 9:30 AM |
Narrowing the loop: Unlocking repairability for high voltage batteries to achieve financially and economically sustainable BEV adoption |
Jacq Paris, Thatcham Research, UK |
| 10:00 AM |
From battery recycling to circular revenue: The business case for the digital battery passport |
Thomas Weis, objective partner AG, DE |
| 10:30 AM |
Meet the speakers | Exhibition | Coffee and contacts |
|
Joint Plenary Session: The Comfort Lab: Science, Culture & Circularity |
||
| 11:15 AM |
Strategic OEM-Supplier Collaboration as an Enabler for Circular and Aesthetic Interior
|
François Farion, Renault Group, FR; Philippe Vattier, Autoneum Holding AG, CH |
| 11:45 AM |
Concept Car Show:Audi Concept C Emblème Concept Car KIA EV2 Concept Car Pix Moving |
Inspect the vehicles on site and discuss with their developers |
| 12:45 PM |
Meet the speakers | Exhibition | Lunch break |
|
Advancing Aluminum Circularity |
||
| 1:45 PM |
Science of recycling alloys: Optimized alloy and process strategies for sustainable automotive applications |
Dr. Lukas Stemper, AMAG rolling GmbH, DE |
| 2:15 PM |
Unlocking circularity in structural materials for Daimler Trucks |
Florian Schnetzer, Hydro Aluminium, UK |
| 2:45 PM |
Structural components in recently developed low carbon aluminum HPDC alloys – benchmarking against magnesium and steel constructions |
Stuart Wiesner, Aluminium Rheinfelden Alloys GmbH, DE |
| 3:15 PM |
Reduction of copper and iron in molten aluminum from old vehicles |
Dr. Norbert Hoffmann, Technical University of Brunswick, Institute for Joining and Welding Technology, DE |
| 3:45 PM |
OEM conclusion / outlook |
Members of the OEM advisory board on their views regarding the next steps on the way towards circularity in automotive production and product design |
| 4:15 PM |
End of conference |
|
| Subject to change As of March 24, 2026 |
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Program is subject to change
Status as of: May 22, 2026
Participants
International OEM Advisory Board
Mike Herbig
Audi AG
Dr. Christoph Haberling
Audi AG
Ilya Popov
Ford Werke GmbH
Timo Unger
Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center GmbH
Luke Birch
Jaguar Landrover (JLR)
Yohei Bito
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Jens Thomer
Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG
Dr. Isotta Cerri
Toyota Motor Europe
Simon Buckingham
Volvo Cars
Dr. Linnea Petersson
Volvo Trucks
Become a sponsor or exhibitor
Take advantage of the high coverage of the Automotive Circle and profit from the sponsoring options before and during the events. Show your competence and services, matching the conference subjects, to the numerous car body engineers of international OEM. Thus, you are strengthening your brand awareness in the automotive industry!
Come on board as an exhibitor or sponsor and benefit from this excellent platform to strongly promote your company’s capabilities as a reliable supplier!
Please contact Frauke Haentsch via frauke.haentsch@vincentz.net for detailed exhibition and sponsoring options.
More Information
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