Increasing circularity of products, components and materials can provide an important approach in the automotive industry to actively conserve resources and achieve sustainability targets. In the near future, regulations will strengthen the requirements on the utilization of recycled materials for the manufacturing of new parts. It is a complex task to identify the potentially best performing circularity pathway for specific components against the different objectives of a company, as a practically applicable method for determining the circular economy potential for automotive components is not yet available.Against this background, the most significant motivations and goals for the implementation of circular economy strategies are summarized and compared regarding their scope, established performance indicators, available assessment methods as well as current and future relevance. Subsequently, a framework is presented, which enables the evaluation of potential circular economy paths for automotive components. It considers a multi-criteria goal-setting and provides the basis for the implementation of an assessment tool.