SABIC to reveal innovative auto materials at Brazil show

One of the programs spurring on growth of Brazil’s automotive industry is Inovar-Auto, which incentivizes automakers to qualify for significant tax discounts by meeting key requirements. Those include improving corporate average vehicle efficiency by 12 percent, conducting a certain number of manufacturing processes in the country and investing in R&D, engineering, industrial technology and supplier capacitation.

SABIC’s advanced automotive materials, local production and in-country engineering capabilities, backed by the company’s global network of application development and technology centers, offer automakers key sources of support to meet these program requirements and further their growth ambitions in this key automotive market.

“We are pleased to once again exhibit at the SAE Brasil Congress and discuss how we as an industry can respond to most pressing challenges and demands in front of us,” said Ricardo Knecht, general manager, South America, SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business.

“With this new drive to advance vehicle technology, we see a window opening for even greater collaboration across the value chain, and we are excited to marry our engineering expertise and know-how with the ingenuity of our customers to make the most of this opportunity.”

“Our best work is done when we are working directly with our customers to understand the challenges and design the solutions,” said Scott Fallon, senior director of automotive marketing for SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business.

“That is why we look forward to events like the SAE Brasil Congress. It is another opportunity for us to start that process of sharing knowledge and translating it into meaningful solutions, and this is what we are presenting here in Sao Paulo – a range of lightweight solutions that can help automakers make significant progress toward the vehicle efficiency targets set out in Inovar-Auto.”

New Windows of Opportunity

Among the many automotive applications SABIC is featuring at the SAE Brasil Congress are the stylish polycarbonate (PC) side windows of Volkswagen’s XL1 diesel plug-in hybrid. The XL1 is the most fuel-efficient production car in the world, with a European combined fuel consumption rating of 0.9 l/100 km.

To achieve this performance, Volkswagen optimized the XL1 for efficiency in all areas of its design and technology. This included producing the side windows through a two-shot injection-molded solution using SABIC’s EXATEC plasma coating technology on LEXAN PC resin and CYCOLOY PC/ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) resin.

These materials reduce the weight of the side windows by 33 percent vs. conventional glass solutions, while delivering a high quality optical appearance and scratch-resistant surface. SABIC provided full application development support to Volkswagen in the design, engineering and production of the side windows.