IDTechEx Explores Sustainable Plastics in the Automotive Industry

By James Kennedy

(The author is a technology analyst at IDTechEx.)

The automotive industry is under increasing scrutiny to improve sustainability, and one of the key approaches to addressing this is sustainable material choice. The automotive sector uses over 14 million tonnes of plastics in passenger automotive vehicles each year.

In their recent market research report, “Sustainable Plastics for Automotive 2025-2035: Market, Players and Forecasts”, IDTechEx covers the adoption of recycled plastics, bioplastics, sustainable composites, sustainable upholstery, sustainable tires, and end-of-life for automotive polymers.

What are the sustainability challenges for automotive polymers?

The sustainability challenges for automotive polymers are wide-ranging but can broadly be split into two key areas. The first and major focus of the report is material sourcing and choice. This is the front end of a conventional linear lifecycle of plastics and polymer-based materials. Currently, most of all plastics produced globally and almost all utilized in the automotive industry are produced from petrochemical feedstocks. This means that the embodied carbon (the carbon emitted from producing these materials) is relatively high. Reliance on the petrochemical industry has other associated concerns that include price fluctuations, geopolitical considerations, and the subsidizing of the oil industry.

In response, new regulatory pressures, including recycled content mandates and carbon taxes, are putting pressure on the automotive industry to address sustainability concerns. Two sustainable alternatives to virgin petrochemical polymers exist.

These are recycled plastic and bioplastics. Stakeholders across the automotive supply chain will need to collaborate to allow these plastics to be adopted at a larger scale.

The key challenges in adoption include material availability, in some cases, variable material properties, and costs. The situation varies significantly by polymer and application. For certain components, such as mono-material polypropylene interior components, the challenges of introducing recycled content are more straightforward to overcome.

These are currently the major target for automotive manufacturers and will remain so for the short and medium term. However, more specialized components from less widely utilized polymers present greater challenges.

Sustainable alternatives to virgin specialized polymers are harder to source and, in the case of composite materials, present further challenges to end-of-life. These highlight just some of the key challenges the automotive industry faces to integrate sustainable materials.

Recycled plastics will play a major role in increasing sustainable content

Mechanically recycled plastics are the most widely available of these materials and are currently used by automakers to a limited extent within vehicles. Mechanical recycling processes plastics into reusable materials by shredding, melting, and reforming without altering chemistry.

The key regulatory pressures include recycled content targets (for example, EU regulations mandating 25% recycled content for vehicles).

These are most likely to be met by utilizing mechanically recycled plastic. Recycled plastic can also be sourced from chemical recycling technologies. Chemical recycling breaks plastics into monomers or raw materials, enabling reuse with restored material properties.

The chemical recycling industry is much more nascent. As such, using chemically recycled material comes with many additional challenges.

Bioplastics adoption will depend on the growth of the bioplastics market

Bioplastics are plastics that are derived from bio-based feedstocks. As with recycled content, the adoption will be limited by supply. The bioplastics market is nascent, and limited polymers are available from bioplastic feedstocks. Additionally, increased costs are associated with the adoption of bioplastics.

Automakers are expected to struggle to meet targets with forecast trends

Strong market growth is expected, with both recycled plastics and bioplastics being utilized in automotive components, with CAGRs for recycled content and bioplastics content at 29.1% and 25.1% respectively between 2025 and 2035. Many key automotive companies have set ambitious targets over the next decades. The sustainable polymer-based materials forecast to be utilized in automotive vehicles will remain below many of the stated targets of automotive companies at close to 18% by 2035. This highlights that automotive stakeholders will require significant action to achieve these goals.

Automotive plastics market forecast

IDTechEx is showcasing its newest report entitled “Sustainable Plastics for Automotive 2025-2035: Markets, Players, and Forecasts”.

The report analyzes the adoption of sustainable plastics in passenger automotive vehicles and the whole circular economy of automotive plastics and other polymers.

The report covers mechanically and chemically recycled plastic, bioplastics, recycled and bio-composites, sustainable upholstery materials, including sustainable tire materials and the end-of-life for automotive polymer-based materials.

The report includes technologies, polymers, market players, adoption by stakeholders, partnership information, and segmented forecasts by polymer for both recycled and bio-based plastics.