Teijin has announced plans to establish a Composite Automotive Center in Wuppertal, Germany as a new base for technical functions within the company’s automotive composite business.
From February the company will handle the concept, designing, prototyping, evaluations, marketing and technical research for next-generation automotive components, using the group’s capabilities to provide a range of solutions for next-generation vehicles.
The new centre is expected to speed up concept, designing, prototyping and the evaluation of technical proposals. In future the centre will develop marketing and research functions to explore opportunities for new technologies and M&A, aiming to accelerate developments with European automakers. The company also has plans to establish similar centres in both the United States and China to satisfy demands.
Teijin is targeting automotive composite business sales of approximately EUR 1.7 billion by 2030. Amid the ongoing shift toward Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric (CASE) vehicles, the automotive industry is urgently transforming its business models to create more lightweight and multifunctional next-generation vehicles.
The company has previously acquired Continental Structural Plastics Holdings Corporation back to become a Tier 1 supplier focused on multi-material automotive composite. In Europe, CSP’s French operation will open a new sheet moulding compound plant and Teijin has acquired leading automotive-composite suppliers Inapal Plásticos SA of Portugal and Benet Automotive s.r.o of Czech Republic.