Renault Trials Blockchain Platform for Component Compliance

Auto manufacturer Renault has trialed a blockchain venture intended to simplify conformity certification of vehicle parts.

The venture, named as Extended Compliance End-to-End Distributed, also referred to as XCEED, is an outcome of Renault’s collaboration with other enterprises to build a blockchain powered supply chain solution by exchanging info.

It is developed on the Hyperledger Fabric network and installed in partnership with IBM. XCEED monitors and endorses regulatory conformity of vehicle spare parts.

Renault piloted XCEED in its Douai plant and handled more than a million documents with processing capacity of 500 transactions per second. XCEED disburses conformity data among manufacturers of spare parts and cars.

Renault stated that the platform expedites data sharing, paving way for real-time delivery. XCEED, the carmaker detailed, builds a dependable network to share info in a trustworthy manner.

Renault’s associates for the venture include Continental, Plastic Omnium, Faurecia and Saint-Gobain. The partnership was initially revealed in 2019. The automaker stated the necessity for an improved compliance solution has arisen due to the implementation of fresh supervising guidelines on September 1.

The European Union’s Directive 2007/46/EC, amended earlier this year, paves way for enhanced tracking of new vehicles and spare parts to fulfill security and environment criterion. Renault stated that its overall production chain “has to adjust its structure” to meet the shortened time period indicated in the guidelines.

Odile Panciatici, blockchain vice president at Groupe Renault, said:

“The XCEED project we initiated is a powerful illustration of Groupe Renault’s capacity to innovate. We are convinced that blockchain is a vector for transforming the automotive industry.
Blockchain technology really comes into its own in a vast ecosystem involving a number of different companies, providing a link between the partners’ various processes, computer systems and databases. There are multiple uses for this type of technology in the automotive industry, where we have exchanges with countless actors from outside the company, such as suppliers, clients and independent distributors.”

It is not Renault’s first entry into blockchain technology. Renault, in association with other automobile enterprises BMW, Ford, GM and tech enterprises IBM, Bosch, Hyperledger and IOTA labored on the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI). It developed a database of Vehicle Identity Numbers on the blockchain. BMW also developed a blockchain powered supply chain solution.