New Energy Vehicles Explode The Market

Under the new trend of automotive lightweight development, lightweight solutions based on material substitution are attracting much attention in the industry. With the advantages of light weight, heat insulation, sound insulation, vibration damping and low price, foamed materials are widely used in automotive interior parts such as instrument panels, headliner interiors and door interior panels.

In recent years, with the improvement of the foaming technology, microfoam materials have made a big splash in the field of automotive lightweighting and are favoured by car manufacturers.

 FOAM EXPO China, to be held in Shenzhen from 7-9 December 2022, will bring together foam technology providers, manufacturers and service providers from chemical raw materials, foam products, foaming and cutting equipment, foaming agents, recycling equipment and technology, as well as adhesives and sealants, with industry players from foam applications with a need to source foam products The event offers opportunities for direct communication, learning and industry solutions.

FOAM

The automotive foam production and processing companies, including Changzhou Wankai Plastics Co Ltd and Asahi Kasei China, will be participating in FOAM EXPO China with products for interior trim, seats, armrests, headrests, inner door panels, dashboards, steering wheels, bumpers and more, which will be sought after by automotive component manufacturers.

The automotive foam market is generally classified by type (polyurethane (PU) foam, polyolefin (PO) foam, others), application (seats, door panels, bumper systems, others), and end use (automotive, light commercial vehicle, heavy commercial vehicle).

According to a comprehensive research report by Market Research Future (MRFR), automotive foams will grow at a CAGR of 10.23% from 2021 to 2028, with a market value of US$38.61 billion in 2021 and US$80.27 billion in 2028.

Lightweight has always been an important direction in the development trend of automobiles and a major factor in solving the range of new energy vehicles, and important progress has been made in the lightweighting of automobiles with plastic instead of steel. Currently, the global automotive industry is in an era of change.

In the context of the new era of an ageing population, environmental protection, intelligence, automation and huge changes in consumer perceptions and demand for cars, coupled with the impact of the global epidemic, automotive lightweighting has become a key fundamental technology.

As new trends such as electrification and intelligence intensify, organic foam materials are expected to be used in automobiles at an unprecedented rate, playing an increasingly important role.

In particular, new energy vehicles, as the direction of development of the automotive industry, are seeing explosive growth. CCA data shows that in 2021, China's new energy vehicle production and sales reached 3,545,000 and 3,521,000 respectively, with year-on-year growth of 1.6 times, and the market share increased to 13.4%, 8 percentage points higher than the previous year.

The range of new energy vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles, has always been the focus of consumers' attention and a selling point for manufacturers competing for the market. It is for this reason that the manufacturers concerned attach great importance to the lightweighting technology of vehicles.

Studies have found that a 10kg reduction in the weight of a pure electric car can increase its range by 2.5km, while a 10% increase in weight will reduce the range of an electric car by 8% on a single charge. Not only that, but once the range is reduced, it will in turn affect the consumer's intelligence and comfort experience.

However, vehicle lightweighting is a complex system engineering, to ensure the overall performance of the vehicle (strength, safety), to reduce the weight of each component as far as possible, while improving power, taking into account the cost, reduce emissions, while meeting the crash safety, NVH and other performance.

Lightweight materials, manufacturing process innovation and structural design optimisation have become the way to achieve lightweighting in automobiles. With the lightweighting of non-metallic materials, the plasticisation of metal parts and the integration of parts becoming an inevitable requirement for the lightweighting of automobiles. Automotive foam materials highlight unique physical properties and higher mechanical strength. The increased demand for electric vehicles in the market has also driven the demand for automotive foam materials.