Japan Automotive Composites Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The automotive industry has been focusing on vehicle weight for decades as vehicle weight have direct impact on driving dynamics and fuel consumption. Due to the high cost of potential lightweight solutions and consumers’ limited willingness to pay for weight reduction in automotive, the use of costly lightweight materials has so far been limited. 

As governments from around the world are implementing stringent emission regulations and even are planning to set even higher emissions standards in the coming years, the importance of lightweight materials will increase. In a typical automobile, the use of fibers is 50% by volume, while adding just 10% to the weight. As per the US Department of Energy (DOE), reducing the weight of vehicles by 10% yields an increase of 6-8% in fuel economy. As a result, companies have started using materials like carbon fiber and glass fiber composites to make vehicles lightweight and fuel-efficient. The usage of glass fiber composites aids in reducing vehicle by 25%.

Apart from carbon fiber, automobile manufacturers have been using glass fiber composites in the manufacturing of numerous automotive components. For instance, 2017 Mini Countryman features an interior panel carrier, uses high flow concentrate long glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (LGFPP) material (STAMAX resin) from SABIC. The part is ~15% lighter in weight than if made from solid plastic. With the demand for lightweight vehicles increasing rapidly in developing economies, the market for carbon fiber composites is projected to grow at a fast pace during the forecast period.

Japan ranks second in the list of car exports. Japan has exported more than 4.8 million passenger and commercial vehicles in 2019. Stringent rules and regulations in regards with emissions play a huge role in North America and Europe, which has led to increase in usage of composites in the automobiles to reduce pollution. The passenger cars have the highest share in terms of usage of composite materials. The legislative bodies are issuing protocols to include certain percentage of composite material in the automobiles. Increase in fuel efficient and weight reduction is major driver which is forcing OEMs are investing into R&D of composite materials. With corporate average fuel economy requirements increasing and vehicle emission requirements getting strict in Japan and all over the world, this market is expected to grow during the forecasted period.