JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #98 - July/August 2015 - 3

52nd year
President and CEO/Publisher:

Composites: solution or challenge
for the automotive industry?

Frédérique Mutel
mutel@jeccomposites.com

Media director & Editor-in-chief:

Frédéric Reux
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 11
reux@jeccomposites.com

Conference & Technical editor:
Franck Glowacz
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 04
glowacz@jeccomposites.com

Frédéric Reux

Cécile Lagoutte
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15.13
lagoutte@jeccomposites.com

Deputy-editor & Graphic designer:
Antoine Morel
morel@jeccomposites.com

Graphic designer:
Adèle Laparra
laparra@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business manager:
Thierry Saint-Martin
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 73
saintmartin@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business developer:
Kim -Oanh Truong
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 74
kim@jeccomposites.com

Marketing/Circulation:
presse@jeccomposites.com
Sandrine Dumarquez
dumarquez@jeccomposites.com

Subscriptions:
www.jeccomposites.com/magazine-subscription/

Printing: Chirat, Saint-Just-la-Pendue (42), France
Legal registration:
ISSN 1639-965X
Dépôt légal : 3eme trimestre 2015

Photos & illustrations:
All right reserved, unless mentionned.

25, Bd de l'Amiral Bruix
75116 Paris - France
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 00
Fax: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 14
www.jeccomposites.com

PEFC

Imprimvert

JEC Composites Magazine is published by JEC.
The reproduction, even partial, of articles and illustrations
is forbidden, unless prior permission is obtained from JEC
Composites Magazine. The management of JEC Composites Magazine reserves the right to refuse advertising.

Total Average
Qualified Circulation:

33,143 copies
BPA Decembre statement 2014.
Print circulation of 20,663 and
electronic circulation of 12,480.

Editor-in-chief
reux@jeccomposites.com

For all vehicles lumped together (cars, light
commercial vehicles, heavy trucks, heavy
buses), global production reached a record
in 2014 at 89,747,430 vehicles produced, a
2.6 % increase over the 87,507,027 vehicles
produced in 2013. At closer look, the privatecar market grew by 2.9 %: 67,525,346 units
produced in 2014, compared to 65,636,451
the year before. Even when one or another
geographical region is impacted, the market
continues to grow, due to market globalization and the huge demand worldwide. The
2014 vehicle ownership rate per 1,000 inhabitants in India was only 20, and in China, 91.
Compare that to 167 in Latin America, 565
in Europe, or 649 in North America...
So the automotive market is in fact growing.
But is there a proportionately positive
impact on the composite material sector?
We can reasonably state that the impact of
growth in the automotive market is positive,
above all for volume: even if the penetration
rate does not change, the volumes of composite materials used increase automatically
with the number of vehicles produced. On
average, the transportation sector, which is a
bit larger than the automotive sector alone,
absorbs an average 25% of the volume in a
composites market that was estimated at 8.8
million metric tons in 2014. Globally, composites currently account for 1-2% of the total
weight of an average mass-produced car. The
percentage is higher for luxury and sports
cars. Things could change rapidly, however,
and the volumes could rise. Over and above
the growth of the market, the penetration
rate of composites should increase by 2020,
at least for two reasons.

The first is the absolute need for builders to
reduce the weight of their vehicles, due to
the regulatory lowering of admissible CO
emission rates - for example, to below 95
grams per kilometre by 2020 in Europe. This
is happening in all regions of the world. To
reach this new goal, based on the 2015 goal
of 130 g/km, about 200 kg per vehicle will
have to be eliminated. The overall improvement in other types of performance - engine
size, aerodynamics, rolling - will not suffice
to achieve 95 g/km, so there must be a
significant reduction. The weight of electric
vehicles will also have to be reduced to offset
the excess weight of the batteries.
The second reason that things could change
rapidly is that composite production cycle
times are becoming more compatible with
specifications in the automotive sector,
now that the applicability of composites has
been proven (BMW's i3 car is one effective
example). Furthermore, this essential industrial aspect is integrated into all (or practically
all) current innovations, which now tend to
focus more on industrial feasibility than on
the parts themselves or their composition. I
would say that we now know how to make
the parts, but need to improve on the way we
do make them.

Writer, Awards & Conference manager:

To learn more about mass production,
productivity, cost reduction, cycle times
and other additional functions, you can read
our report, and then join us in Boston on
22-23 September 2015, where we will take
a very hands-on approach to cost-competitive solutions for mass production in the
automotive industry.

No98 July - August 2015 /

jec composites magazine 3

http://www.jeccomposites.com/magazine-subscription/ http://www.jeccomposites.com http://www.jeccomposites.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #98 - July/August 2015