Automotive Light Weight Materials Market - Forecast(2023 - 2028)

Automotive Light Weight Materials Market size is forecast to reach $81 billion by 2025, after growing at a CAGR of 7.56% during 2020-2025, owing to the rise in demand for lightweight vehicles. There is an increasing demand for light weight vehicles as it makes the vehicle fuel-efficient, which reduces the running costs and fuel consumption of the vehicle. Lightweight materials such as metals, plastics, polymer composites, high strength steel, and advanced high strength steel improve the performance of the vehicles, which has resulted in the penetration of light weight materials into the automotive sector. The increasing vehicle emission and fuel economy regulations are anticipated to drive the automotive light weight materials market substantially during the forecast period.

The report: “Automotive Light Weight Materials Market – Forecast (2020-2025)”, by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the automotive light weight materials Industry. 

By Material: Metals (Magnesium, Aluminium, and Others), Composites (Carbon Fiber Composites, Glass Fiber Composites, and Others), High Strength Steel, Plastic, and Others 

By Vehicle Type: Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), and Others

By Application: Body, Chassis, Interior, Engine, Bumper Fascia, Power Train, and Others

By Geography: North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and RoW

The metal segment held the largest share in the automotive light weight materials market in 2019, owing to the superior characteristics of metals such as low cost, good strength, stiffness, quick and easy to make, versatility, easily customizable, readily available globally, durable and flexible. Also, the body, structure, and some engine parts of vehicles are mostly made of magnesium as it is 75% lighter than steel and 33% lighter than aluminum. Moreover, aluminium is an extremely versatile metal with several advantages; and it is recognized for being both lightweight and flexible. It can be cast, melted, formed, machined, and extruded meaning that it can be manufactured into a variety of shapes and then subsequently fabricated to suit a whole variety of uses. Thus, metals are being extensively used for manufacturing automotive parts such as vehicle bodies, engine, chassis, wheels, doors, belts, hoses seals wiper blades, hoods, hatchbacks and more, which is anticipated to boost the demand for the metal from the automotive light weight materials market during the forecast period.

The Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) segment held the largest share in the automotive light weight materials market in 2019, owing to the advantages it offers such as lower running cost, cheaper to maintain, releases less pollution, reduction in greenhouse gas emission, eco friendly and more. Also, many European governments and cities such as Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, UK, Oslo, Amsterdam, Paris, and London are incentivizing consumers to opt for electric mobility, each with their schemes. Many governments are making investments in EV-enabling infrastructures such as charging stations and special parking spots. The government of Estonia installed fast chargers throughout the country (165 in total) to ensure that every city with at least 5,000 inhabitants hosts at least one station. Also, Britain’s government has been focused on expanding its public electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, investing an additional $3.25 million to help pay for the installation of more than 1,000 new charging points on residential streets. All these government initiatives are anticipated to boost the demand for battery electric vehicles during the forecast period.

The power train application held the largest share in the automotive light weight materials market in 2019 and is growing at a CAGR of 8.5%, owing to the increasing demand of light weight materials such as aluminium, high strength steel, plastics, magnesium, and carbon fiber composites from the automotive industries to manufacture power train. The high-end manufacturers are manufacturing lightweight power trains as OEMs are seeking more efficiency within the internal combustion engine. Interior application is also growing at a significant rate in the automotive light weight materials industry. Interior parts of vehicles such as headliner, dash, door panel, seats, instrument panels, upholstery, sound control fabrics, and more. Moreover, the light weight materials such as plastics are known to provide similar aesthetics to natural materials with enhanced scratch resistance for interior seats and surfaces, which is anticipated to propel the automotive light weight materials market during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific region held the largest share in the automotive light weight materials market in 2019 up to 35%, owing to the increasing automotive manufacturing and population growth in the region. According to OICA, in 2018 the automotive production in India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia has increased up to 5174645, 2167694, 1343714 and 564800, i.e., 8.0%, 9.0%, 10.3%, and 12.2% higher than the previous year due to rising per capita income of the individuals which further led to the massive demand for advanced lightweight automotive materials in APAC region. In June 2017, Clean Energy Ministerial launched a campaign EV30@30 to accelerate the utilization of electric vehicles across the globe. This led to an increased number of electric vehicles and is anticipated to further increase the manufacturing of electric vehicles in the coming years. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Indian automotive industry has attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$ 22.35 billion during the period April 2000 to June 2019. The increasing automation industry in the Asia Pacific is likely to influence the growth of the automotive light weight materials market in the APAC region.

Several governments across the world have imposed stringent standard emission and fuel economy regulations for vehicles. These standard regulations have compelled automotive OEMs to increase the use of lightweight materials such as lightweight metals, composites, high strength steel, and plastics as these advanced lightweight materials assist in increasing the fuel economy of a vehicle while ensuring safety and performance. The emission regulation for light-duty cars such as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) and Greenhouse Gas Emission standards set fuel consumption standards for the vehicles. These regulations by the governments have made sure that the car manufacture henceforth might need to be manufacturing much lighter vehicles to obey as per these norms, which acts as a driver for the automotive light weight materials market during the forecast period.

 

Various governments are taking initiatives to opt for electric mobility, each with their schemes. For instance, the Norway government is offering a broad package of subsidies amounting to EUR 17,000 on purchase of a compact class ICE car, UK government is paying back to the buyers of vehicles (emitting less than 75 g/km) a onetime premium of GPB 4,000-7,000. Also, few Australian states are offering savings for EV owners such as EVs registered in the ACT are exempt from stamp duty. EVs registered in Victoria are receiving a $100 reduction in registration fees every year. The U.S. Department of Energy launched The EV Project and the Charge Point America project. During the tenure January 2011 and December 2013, this combined project installed nearly 17,000 alternating currents (AC) Level 2 charging stations for residential and commercial use and over 100 dual-port DC fast chargers in 22 regions across the United States. All these government initiatives promoting the use of lightweight vehicles such as battery electric vehicles act as a driver for the automotive light weight materials market during the forecast period. 

The cost of the automotive light weight materials is at times supposedly higher. When compared with other traditional materials such as steel, some lightweight materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) are costly. Composites of carbon fiber cost almost 1.5 to five times more than steel. The high cost of fiber production inhibits large volume deployment. Therefore precursor and processing costs need to be reduced. Light weight composite materials deliver significant improvements in specific strength and rigidity over metals, creating a myriad of enhanced characteristics. However, they're more expensive. Matrix and reinforcement composites materials cost usually depend on the individual prices of both of these materials. The composite enhancement often used includes carbon fiber and fiberglass. The high price of carbon fibers in many applications constrains the potential use of composites. Hence, the high cost of composites may hinder with the automotive light weight materials market growth during the forecast period. 

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has impacted the imports and exports of automotive light weight materials such as aluminum, magnesium, composites, plastics, high strength steel, and others as Governments of the leading producing countries have imposed export restrictions which are significantly disrupting with the supplies. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on the automotive industry. The production of automobiles has been disruptively stopped, contributing to a major loss in the total automotive sectors. With the decrease in automotive production, the demand for automotive light weight materials has significantly fallen, which is having a major impact on the automotive light weight materials market.

Technology launches, acquisitions, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the automotive light weight materials market. In 2019, the market of automotive light weight materials has been consolidated by the top five players accounting for xx% of the share. Major players in the automotive light weight materials market are BASF SE, LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V., Toray Industries Inc., ArcelorMittal, ThyssenKrupp AG, Novelis, Inc., Covestro AG, and Alcoa Corporation.