Why Is Demand for Automotive Window and Sealing systems Tied to Emission Norms?

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic far from being over, automotive sales, which had taken a rather bad hit last year, are showing rapid recovery. In January–March 2021, worldwide auto production numbered 18,788,699 units, which has been considerably higher than the numbers recorded over the same period last year, of 14,988,886, according to Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA). This is not only good news for automakers but also for the manufacturers and suppliers of the thousands of automobile components, such as window and sealing systems.

 

Giving a boost to auto production, which had been consistently increasing for over 10–20 years before the pandemic hit, this latest surge in vehicle demand will likely take the automotive window and sealing systems market value from $21.7 billion in 2017 to $38.7 billion by 2025, at least, at a 7.6% CAGR between 2018 and 2023. The disposable income in developing countries has steadily risen over the last two–three decades, which has been driving the demand for vehicles, especially cars and two-wheelers.

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One of the best ways to achieve the same, apart from making changes to the engine and using cleaner fuels, is to reduce the vehicles’ fuel consumption. This, in turn, can be achieved by making the automobiles lighter, which reduces the effort that the engine has to put in to propel it forward. As per the U.S. Department of Energy, fuel economy can increase by up to 8% if the vehicle weight is lowered by 10%. Thus, heavier bonding components, such as nuts and bolts, are being replaced by adhesives and polymers, to make vehicles lightweight.

 

Automotive window and sealing systems include glass run channels, roof ditch molding, waist belt seals, hood seals, front windshield seals, corner molding, trunk seals, door seals, sunroof seals, rear windshield seals, encapsulated glass, and end caps. All of them are now common in electric vehicles (EVs) and internal combustion engine (ICE)-based commercial vehicles and passenger cars. Till now, ICE passenger cars have made the highest use of such systems because they account for the highest production.

 

In the coming years, EVs will start using such systems in abundance due to the widespread focus on increasing the usage of such automobiles and phasing out ICE ones. For this, many governments are offering purchase subsidies, tax exemptions, and other benefits, because of which the number of electric cars on the roads breached the 7-million mark in 2019, with sales topping 2.1 million units that year, as per the IEA. Hence, with automakers manufacturing more EVs, their demand for automotive window and sealing systems will rise.

Thus, with the increasing vehicle production and pollution levels, the demand for automotive window and sealing systems will rise.