Coming out party

Plastics abound inside vehicles, but they are increasingly finding new applications outside the cockpit thanks to a heavy push for lightweight solutions.

No area of a vehicle is safe from the current weight-slashing ways of automotive engineers and designers. Different types of materials are lining up to either retain an existing application or to capture new ones. The steel industry boasts of new advanced high-strength steels that enable less material to be used, and other metals such as aluminum and magnesium have a long-established lightweight image.

Plastics and composites, too, are recognized for their weight-reducing ability, as well as for enabling greater design freedom. But their shortcomings are also well-documented, notably production challenges that can limit their cost-effectiveness in high volumes. Suppliers are making strides, however, to optimize designs and improve manufacturing process efficiency to rectify that issue.