Strengthening Automotive Engineering Capabilities... Focus on Developing Plastics as Steel Substitutes for Electric Vehicle Parts
Concentrating on Plastics Development to Replace Steel in the EV Lightweighting Trend
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Global chemical companies such as BASF and Covestro are strengthening their research and development (R&D) of engineering plastics. This is due to expectations that the use of engineering plastics will increase instead of steel materials when producing electric vehicles, following the trend of lightweighting.
BASF recently opened an Engineering Plastics Innovation Center in Korea and announced plans to strengthen its ultraform R&D capabilities domestically.
Engineering plastics are materials developed to complement the shortcomings of general plastics. They are high-performance plastics with excellent strength and elasticity, resistant to high temperatures, corrosion, and fire. Their properties are closer to metals than plastics, so they are mainly used in machinery, home appliances, electronics, and aerospace fields as substitutes for metal materials.
This material is especially attracting attention from the complete vehicle industry. Using engineering plastics in hydrogen and electric vehicles can reduce weight by up to 50% and also prevent fires. For example, Toyota applied BASF-produced polyamide Ultramid to car seats, reducing the weight by 30% compared to conventional metal seats and cutting seat production costs by 15%.
With the growth of the electric vehicle market, demand for engineering plastics is also expected to increase. BASF anticipates that automotive engineering plastics will grow by about 20% by 2035. The opening of the Engineering Plastics Innovation Center at BASF Korea is interpreted as a strategy to strengthen automotive engineering plastics technology. BASF Korea has a research team dedicated to replacing metals with plastics. They have already developed plastics with about 60% of the strength of metals. The ultimate goal is to develop plastics that can replace automotive steel materials.
Andy Poslthwaite, Head of Functional Materials Business Division for BASF Asia-Pacific, said, "Our mission is to replace as many parts as possible with plastics for (automotive) lightweighting," adding, "More and more automakers will replace metal with plastic to reduce vehicle weight in the future."
In the case of Covestro, they have showcased a concept car that replaces some parts of the body with plastic. The engineering plastic used is lighter than automotive steel sheets but has strength similar to steel.
An official from a foreign chemical company said, "There will be fierce competition between the steel industry's lightweighting and the chemical industry's strength enhancement technologies in the electric vehicle market," adding, "Some parts that previously used steel materials are already being replaced with plastics, and replacing the entire body with plastic is the future envisioned by the chemical industry."
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