Polyamide in Automotive: Essential Uses and Market Impact

Polyamide used in the automotive industry

Polyamide (PA) is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic widely used in the automotive, electronics, consumer goods, and aerospace sectors due to its excellent thermal and mechanical properties.

Polyamide Market Forecast:

The automotive industry is the largest end-use industry, accounting for more than 45% of the total demand. Increasing use of recyclable materials in the automotive industry will boost the polyamide market in the forecast period. Polyamides are widely used in the automotive industry in EVs, HEV, and various parts owing to their low weight, high-temperature resistance, and thermal stability. They are used for the manufacture of airbag containers, powertrain components, door handles, mirrors, wheel covers, fuel caps, etc.

Electric vehicles have been a major area of development in the automotive industry since the last decade. EVs and HEVs have been gaining importance and increasing their market share at a decent pace, with the high cost of batteries being the only key restraining factor. The key companies present in the automotive industry include Toyota, Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Volvo, Ford, Mitsubishi, General Motors, and Renault-Nissan, all of whom have been successful in developing and optimizing their own HEV and EVs for improved performance and efficiency.

Polyamide Region Analysis:

Asia Pacific is the largest market for Polyamide globally, and most of the growth is from China. China is the largest automotive market globally and is expected to boost the production of electric and hybrid vehicles in the forecast years. Volvo and Tesla Mottos recently announced setting up an electric vehicle manufacturing facility in China. In India, the Government is looking at providing incentives like lower taxes and interest rates on loans for consumers buying electric vehicles are opposed to conventional vehicles.

Domo Chemicals announced the expansion of their Technyl high-performance polyamides to cater to the growing demand in the automotive, electronics, and consumer goods industries. Domo Chemicals completed the acquisition of Solvay’s Performance Polymers and has started selling the Technyl products in 2022.

Solvay Performance Polyamides’ Technyl Blue range manufactures new grades of polyamides which are specially designed for the manufacture of electric vehicles. By using polyamide components instead of metal alternatives, weight can be reduced, and fuel efficiency boosted, ensuring electric vehicles use less energy and are therefore able to run for a longer period.

In October 2022, DSM Engineering Materials partnered with Renault in creating a high-performance low carbon footprint material fuel tank.

Kautex Textron and Lanxess have developed a technology demonstrator made of PA 6 for use in plastic enclosures in high-voltage EV batteries.

PA66 grades are used for the safety encasing of lithium-ion batteries because of their excellent balance of temperature, impact resistance, and enhanced electrical properties for fast charging at high power loads.