Indian auto majors shift focus to plastics to cut production cost

Home-grown automotive players like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, TVS Motors and Maruti Suzuki are augmenting the use of plastics in engine components in an ambitious effort to reduce dependence on key metals like steel and aluminium, all of which have witnessed stupendous rise of 35-50 per cent in the past 5 months.

Plastic reduces the overall weight of the car by as much as 40 per cent, thereby automatically boosting the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. In addition, the cost of tooling plastic is half that of a conventional metal-based tooling system. Tooling is a process of providing a factory or an industry with the equipment needed for manufacturing.

Wolfgang Hapke, president, BASF, said: "India is one of the fastest growing automotive markets in the world but the use of plastics in automobiles is half of that of some of the international markets. There is a lot of scope of development in this space (in India). We have received very good response from Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and have started supplies to all the leading auto players. We expect to double our supplies in the next few years."

BASF is the world's leading chemical company with revenues of about