Guest Post: Driving Innovation - How Plastics are Making Vehicles More Fuel Efficient
Mary Fraser, BASF, ACC, Plastics Division Automotive Team, October 1st, 2009, Gas2.org
BMW Vision EfficientDynamics
Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by Mary Fraser, BASF, American Chemistry Council - Plastics Division Automotive Team.
Despite all of the challenges facing the automotive industry today, this is a time of great innovation.
Electric vehicles are just months away from entering the U.S. market and evolving engine technology is consistently improving fuel efficiency. Auto manufacturers are taking big steps to reduce emissions and hybrid cars are becoming mainstream. While powertrain technology has significantly improved fuel efficiency in recent history, the materials used in production of automobiles are increasingly playing a key role in making vehicles more sustainable. One group of materials, in particular, that is opening new doors to auto design and fuel economy is plastics.
Plastics are helping to revolutionize the automobile as we know it. “Lightweighting” has become the watchword in the automotive industry as manufacturers strive to increase gas mileage by reducing the weight of vehicles. Innovations in plastics have given auto manufacturers the opportunity to build lighter weight cars without compromising safety. Light and strong reinforced plastic vehicle parts are replacing their traditional metal counterparts. These strong, energy absorbing plastics are being adopted to increase the resilience of passenger cars in a crash, while also reducing the weight of the vehicle to improve fuel efficiency.
For every 10 percent reduction in weight of the total vehicle, fuel economy improves by 5-7 percent and for every kilogram of vehicle weight reduction, there is a potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 kilograms over the vehicle’s operating life. Plastics are making these weight reductions and emission savings possible. With more than 600 million vehicles on global roads, the saved vehicle CO2 emissions really add up. Through the recent “Cash for Clunkers” program, 997,824 vehicles were traded in for more fuel efficient models in the month of July 2009 alone. You can bet that each of those new replacement vehicles is benefiting from plastics innovations that are helping improve fuel efficiency. As plastics technology advances, manufacturers will be able to make vehicles even lighter, which can be expected to result in even more fuel efficient vehicles.
Because plastics are lightweight and versatile, they make up approximately 50 percent of the material volume of new cars. This includes safety features like seat belts, air bags and padded dashboards, as well as functional components such as seats, bumpers, electronics and consoles. Many new parts for instance, under the hood casings, knee bolsters, and even some headlamp reflectors have been created from recycled plastics, with the hope that more recycled material will be a part of future cars, closing the loop. Innovations in plastic materials have also enabled vehicle designers to increase the quality, comfort and attractiveness of automobile interiors.
Plastic materials are used to create countless products we use in our everyday lives, especially within the automotive industry. Whether manufacturers are addressing fuel economy, safety, style or functionality, the common theme is that plastics are helping make all of these efforts possible.
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HALELUJAH! AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID --AMEN!
BMW Vision EfficientDynamics
Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by Mary Fraser, BASF, American Chemistry Council - Plastics Division Automotive Team.
Despite all of the challenges facing the automotive industry today, this is a time of great innovation.
Electric vehicles are just months away from entering the U.S. market and evolving engine technology is consistently improving fuel efficiency. Auto manufacturers are taking big steps to reduce emissions and hybrid cars are becoming mainstream. While powertrain technology has significantly improved fuel efficiency in recent history, the materials used in production of automobiles are increasingly playing a key role in making vehicles more sustainable. One group of materials, in particular, that is opening new doors to auto design and fuel economy is plastics.
Plastics are helping to revolutionize the automobile as we know it. “Lightweighting” has become the watchword in the automotive industry as manufacturers strive to increase gas mileage by reducing the weight of vehicles. Innovations in plastics have given auto manufacturers the opportunity to build lighter weight cars without compromising safety. Light and strong reinforced plastic vehicle parts are replacing their traditional metal counterparts. These strong, energy absorbing plastics are being adopted to increase the resilience of passenger cars in a crash, while also reducing the weight of the vehicle to improve fuel efficiency.
For every 10 percent reduction in weight of the total vehicle, fuel economy improves by 5-7 percent and for every kilogram of vehicle weight reduction, there is a potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 kilograms over the vehicle’s operating life. Plastics are making these weight reductions and emission savings possible. With more than 600 million vehicles on global roads, the saved vehicle CO2 emissions really add up. Through the recent “Cash for Clunkers” program, 997,824 vehicles were traded in for more fuel efficient models in the month of July 2009 alone. You can bet that each of those new replacement vehicles is benefiting from plastics innovations that are helping improve fuel efficiency. As plastics technology advances, manufacturers will be able to make vehicles even lighter, which can be expected to result in even more fuel efficient vehicles.
Because plastics are lightweight and versatile, they make up approximately 50 percent of the material volume of new cars. This includes safety features like seat belts, air bags and padded dashboards, as well as functional components such as seats, bumpers, electronics and consoles. Many new parts for instance, under the hood casings, knee bolsters, and even some headlamp reflectors have been created from recycled plastics, with the hope that more recycled material will be a part of future cars, closing the loop. Innovations in plastic materials have also enabled vehicle designers to increase the quality, comfort and attractiveness of automobile interiors.
Plastic materials are used to create countless products we use in our everyday lives, especially within the automotive industry. Whether manufacturers are addressing fuel economy, safety, style or functionality, the common theme is that plastics are helping make all of these efforts possible.
-------------------------------------------------------END OF ARTICLE ------------------------------------------------------
HALELUJAH! AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAID --AMEN!
Tags: light-weight
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by SJC on -
Saturn had the space frame with polymer panels that really kept the weight down on their cars. Then GM told them to use the Opel designs that were steel and heavy. Companies can make a light safe car that is fuel efficient, it just does not seem like a priority. Volvo told about how safe their cars were for years and not many noticed until safety became a big issue and people associated the Volvo brand with safety.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Espeseth on -
May require a seperate road environment for larger trucks, etc...
Not a bad idea in itself (for inner city conditions).
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Permalink Reply by neil cox on -
The car designers and collision repair shops are experienced in steel. Plastics are different; worse there are many kinds of plastic: The better ones typically being more costly than steel. Over the years, the few plastic parts used have often caused problems, so customer acceptance is not good. All these problem are likely solvable, but getting to good solutions means a year or two of reduced profits for both manufacturers and repair shops. The plastic manufacturers are sometimes untruthful about the disadvantages of their product in specific applications.
Weight hardly matters for electric vehicles with regenerative breaking. Air resistance is the big factor, but streamlining adds to the amount of material needed, and/or reduces the passenger and cargo space. Neil
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Permalink Reply by W. Dan Chance on -
If you felt like this was a positive development, what would you do (or recommend) to help solve the problems and reduce the "shake out period"?
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Permalink Reply by SJC on
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"Weight hardly matters for electric vehicles"
Weight matters a LOT for electric vehicles. The range improves greatly with lighter weight.
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Permalink Reply by neil cox on
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Hi SJC: Perhaps weight matters somewhere between hardly matters and a lot. My thinking was: If you use battery power at 80% efficiency to accelerate a one ton vehicle to 60 MPH, then use regenerative breaking to recharge the battery at 80% efficiency, you recovered about 60%, compared to zero percent for a gasoline car. Of course neither are perfectly streamlined, so the windage energy quickly exceeds the acceleration energy, and there are some energy losses where the rubber meets the road. It takes no energy to maintain a ton at constant speed other than the windage and tire losses plus the losses due to the efficiency not being 100%. Typically the electric vehicle is more than twice as efficient as the gasoline powered vehicle. Neil
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