The energy gap
A gigajoule is a unit of energy. Making 1 tonne of new aluminium takes 186 gigajoules of energy, counted from mining the raw ore through to the finished metal, in 2019, according to the International Aluminium Institute, a global industry group. Recycling 1 tonne of aluminium that already exists takes 8.3 gigajoules, the same group states. That is a 95.5% saving in energy for the same amount of metal. Novelis, an aluminium supplier, separately states that recycling the metal produces roughly 95% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than making it new, a different measurement from the energy figure above that points the same direction.
Global primary energy consumption, mine to cast house, for new aluminium, 2019 data from the International Aluminium Institute.
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| New aluminium | 186 |
| Recycled aluminium | 8.3 |
Already in a car body
Jaguar Land Rover, a carmaker, and Novelis, the company that supplies its aluminium, both state that the body panels of the Jaguar XE hold up to 75% recycled aluminium. Jaguar Land Rover states that half of the XE body structure is made from aluminium alloy grades that contain an important amount of that recycled content. The panels are made from an alloy called RC5754. An alloy is a mix of metals blended for a specific job. Novelis built the alloy to meet the recycled content level Jaguar Land Rover set for the REALCAR project, a program that turns aluminium scrap from Jaguar Land Rover factories directly back into new body panels rather than selling it as lower grade scrap. Jaguar Land Rover states the project processed 360,000 tonnes of that closed loop scrap between September 2013 and March 2020, and that it cut production carbon dioxide emissions by up to 26% for each vehicle. No count outside Jaguar Land Rover and Novelis has independently checked the 75% figure.
The rest of the industry
Novelis reports its own recycled content share across everything it makes, not only the Jaguar alloy, at 63% in its 2025 fiscal year, up from 30% more than a decade earlier. Novelis has set a target of 75% company wide by 2030. Reaching that target would need Novelis to raise its company wide share by 12 percentage points in 5 years, a MAOWCE calculation from the 63% and 75% figures Novelis states.
This is 1 supplier company wide figure across everything it makes, not specific to the Jaguar XE alloy named in the stat row above.
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| More than 10 years ago | 30 |
| Fiscal year 2025 | 63 |
| 2030 target | 75 |
In the United States, more than 80% of all aluminium production already comes from recycled material, according to the Aluminum Association, a trade group. The same group separately states that more than 90% of the aluminium in a car gets recycled once that car reaches the end of its life, a figure for how much scrap gets collected back, not how much recycled metal went into the car when it was built.
This project has allowed us, for the first time, to recover premium automotive grade aluminium from scrapped vehicles and re use its unique properties.
Gaelle Guillaume, Lead Project Manager for REALITY at Jaguar Land Rover. Source 2.