Transitioning to Circular Automotive Systems: A Systematic Review of Supply Chain Practices and Implementation

The Automobile industry shifts from linear to circular economy for sustainability on a global level with respect to the industrial revolution 5.0, but it faces challenges when establishing circular economy. Circular supply chain implementation is dependent on multiple barriers and enablers, including economic managerial, technological, regulatory and social domains, making it ineffective for single factor solution. The purpose behind this review is to conduct a systematic literature review to develop an understanding how these interconnected barriers and enablers can together shape the circular supply chain implementation and their performance, specifically inside the automotive sector which is still remain a little known. By applying the PRISMA framework on 150 peer reviewed articles, research papers. The research shows that literature focuses on primarily on electric vehicle barriers within developing economies. circular supply chain implementation is governed not only by isolated barriers but by complex systematic interdependencies between enablers as well. This interdependencies are of enablers and barriers can be further classified into economical and financial, managerial and organizational, technological and infrastructure, policy and regularity and market and social. The study shows two systematic patterns, driving the transition technology- policy interdependence and conflicting relationship between large scale production and value extraction. The findings also presented a research agenda focusing on strategic value creation through material streams of automotive electronics, plastics and composites with high potential value and further insights are needed. Circular supply chain as a strategic approach for securing critical material supplies, while policymakers could leverage the use of digital tools as the foundational infrastructure for subsidies allocation and prevent the fraud.