CHEP Automotive releases its fifth supply chain trend report

Global leader in reusable packaging solutions, CHEP shares its insights on the evolution of automotive fuels and logistics in its latest trend report: “5 Alternative fuels and their impact on the automotive supply chain”.

Petrol and diesel are still the traditional products used to power vehicles across the world, but burning these fuels in combustion engines creates harmful by-products — like nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide — and contributes to global warming by emitting carbon dioxide. In 2022, private cars and vans were responsible for around 10% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions and heavy goods vehicles and buses for more than 35% of direct CO₂ emissions from road transport.

With climate change a pressing reality, governments, policy makers, energy providers and OEMs are all pursuing alternative solutions. CHEP Automotive’s latest trend report explores fuel technologies currently in the marketplace, or soon to be commercialised, — such as electricity, natural gas, hydrogen, biofuels and eFuels — and the impact their uptake will have on the automotive supply chain.

“As the automotive supply chain evolves, it is essential packaging does too,” explains Safak Aktekin, senior commercial director at CHEP Automotive. “That packaging needs to offer agility and protection, while never compromising on the need to reduce supply chain inefficiencies such as waste and empty transport miles.”

In the search for greener transport, the opportunity to continue to build a greener automotive supply chain is more important than ever. Different technologies require different parts, some of which — like batteries and hydrogen fuel cells — are fragile and volatile items to ship. While sustainability gains can be made in upstream activities such as steel manufacture and raw material excavation for batteries, tangible impacts can also be found in downstream logistics and packaging.

Read the full report here.