Chuck Johnson
President & CEO, The Aluminum Association
Recycling & Electrification: Roadmap for Automotive Aluminum & Aluminum Content in BEVs
The transition to BEVs and how to implement processes and design considerations advantageous to sustainable outcomes are top-of-mind in the automotive industry. Recycling, BEV material considerations and manufacturing initiatives to achieve these ends are outlined in the Roadmap for Automotive Aluminum. This document is the culmination of aluminum and automotive stakeholders coming together to develop a blueprint for how aluminum can assist creating safer, better performing and more sustainable vehicles during the next decade and beyond.
The aluminum industry’s sustainability goals range from improved infrastructure for the recovery of aluminum scrap to greater capability for scrap use and widespread aluminum content adoption in automotive design. The industry has a strong foundation with end-of-life recycling processes already in practice through leading automakers. Near-term goals include building and deploying the infrastructure needed to collect, sort and reuse scrap. Key factors to achieving those goals will be the ability to return scrap to the mill, application to pre- and post-consumer recycled materials, and the ability to identify, segregate and use different types of alloys effectively. As aluminum content grows in future vehicles, aluminum industry stakeholders aim to benchmark current recycling technologies and assess composition of final remelted scrap, including the full spectrum of dismantling, shredding, and sorting.
The ATG is also eager to share results from a new ATG study that finds today’s BEVs contain more aluminum than ICE counterparts and that as battery prices and storage densities improve aluminum lightweighting in BEVs continues to be economically justified. The session will draw real-world conclusions to aluminum technologies available today and those under development while quantifying aluminum’s value as penetration of BEVs into fleets grows.
Speaker Biography
As president and CEO of the Aluminum Association, Charles “Chuck” Johnson serves as the chief advocate for the full aluminum value chain in the United States, which supports hundreds of thousands of American workers. The association’s 120+ members make 70 percent of the aluminum and aluminum products shipped in North America.
Prior to joining the association in 2022, Charles served as the President of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), the trade organization for personal protective equipment and technologies. During his tenure, he modernized ISEA’s operations and spearheaded the passage of key liability legislation for safety equipment manufacturers. Notably, Charles led the ISEA as the industry was at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
He previously served as the vice president of policy for the Aluminum Association, acting as strategic advisor to the industry and advancing the aluminum industry’s interests in Washington D.C. and abroad. His responsibilities included federal affairs, environmental regulation, occupational health and safety, community and consumer protection, international regulation and sustainability.
Charles has 18 years of aluminum industry experience, during which he represented the U.S. industry in international corporate stewardship deliberations, diverse standards setting forums and at the WHO/FAO.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi and a master’s degree in international environmental policy from The American University.
