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Bayer aims to tap China’s new energy auto market
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Bayer MaterialScience, a subgroup of German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG, joined hands with Chinese automakers, including Great Wall Motors and Chery, to explore new application opportunities in auto parts for its polycarbonates.
At the K Fair in Dusseldorf last month, the world’s largest plastics fair, the company exhibited the Haval E concept car from China’s Great Wall Motors Co. The prototype is an electric vehicle that utilizes energy-saving glazing components made of polycarbonates from the German polymer company.
“It’s a symbolic gesture to show how important the Chinese market is,” said Patrick Thomas, chairman of the board of management at Bayer MaterialScience. “It’s a huge market, representing 70 percent of global consumption of polycarbonates.”
He added, “We’ve built plastic cars with BMW and Hyundai before, but this year, it’s a Chinese car from Great Wall. The future automobile industry is being written right now in China. It could be a leap forward from hybrids directly to electric cars in mobility, a different system of batteries, use of different materials or any other design concepts.”
Battery systems have been the bottleneck of electric cars. A lighter vehicle body of plastic may help extend battery life and become a solution for new energy cars. China, the world’s biggest car market, has been trying to promote production and use of green vehicles.
Great Wall said it was attracted by Bayer’s leading technologies in materials, including polycarbonates, and to the German company’s past experience in successful joint development with a number of international carmakers.
“The adoption of polycarbonate material in this concept car enabled full freedom of design, which resulted in the design of a complex curved surface,” the Chinese automaker said. “Furthermore, the new material is 40 percent lighter than traditional glass, which is something extremely important for electric models.”
About 95 percent of headlights in the world are made of polycarbonates. The material can produce and integrate different auto parts in one single injection molding process, which offers greater freedom of design and cost-saving incentives, according to Great Wall.
“Our collaboration with Chinese carmakers is not limited to Great Wall,” Joachim Simon, global head of mobility marketing at Bayer MaterialScience, told Shanghai Daily at the trade fair. “We’ve worked with other automakers, such as Chery and FAW Group. We have a collaborative research center with Chery in China for more environment-friendly and energy-saving new materials that can be used for producing lightweight new energy cars.”
Simon added, “We are very interested in working with other producers in China. We are sending a very strong message here by moving Great Wall’s Haval E from China to Germany. It’s the first time we are showing that the development of the concept car was completely done in China. And we want to tell the local community here that Bayer has partners in Europe and it also takes global partners in Asia.”
At the fair, Bayer also debuted a prototype of a trunk lid made of plastics, with a sandwich structure that is stronger than steel but much lighter in weight. The design idea of this plastic composite was from nature: with a thin, rigid outer skin and lightweight core — a structure reminiscent of a bone.
The outer skin is made of glass fiber-reinforced polycarbonate that is more rigid than steel. And the core was made of shock-absorbing polyurethane foam.
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