Automakers spend more time considering the impact of a vehicle from cradle to grave rather than focusing on the time a vehicle spends on the road. Renault Trucks has built the infrastructure in recent years to get the most out of a vehicle, both financially and commercially, from the time it is built until after retirement. The company says its installations are good for 1.5 million kilometers, or just over 930,000 miles. It built a used truck factory in its new truck factory complex, where good commercial trucks that have not reached the end of their life are overhauled and updated with current technology by Renault Truck technicians, then sold on to the construction department. It has now opened a 32,300 square foot used parts factory that acts as a dismantling line for end-of-life trucks. Tractors are dismantled and their parts are refurbished, recycled or melted down.
Components such as the engine, gearbox, cabin, fuel tank, bumpers and wind deflectors are rebuilt or cleaned according to the company’s specifications and are then offered for sale on the official Renault Trucks spare parts portal at great discounts compared to new parts. Every part shipped over this track is re-labeled for traceability and sold under the name Used Parts by Renault Trucks, and comes with a manufacturer’s warranty. Tired raw materials, such as the chassis rails, are cut and sent to the local foundry, which will extract metal from it to be processed into components for new trucks.
Renault Trucks’ initiative may seem less misguided after the discovery that Volvo Trucks owns Renault Trucks. Volvo Trucks is separate from Volvo Cars, the former a standalone company that also historically owns American truck manufacturer Mack, the latter owned by Chinese carmaker Geely. However, Volvo Trucks has its own used truck business and the Scandinavians in general are known for their concern for the environment, regardless of the industry or the company agreements.
Renault Trucks said it was working with specialist Indra Automobile Recycling and ADEME, the French environmental and energy management agency, to study the factory’s feasibility for used parts.