Dec. 27, 2017—The global automotive exterior materials market is expected to reach $19.21 billion in 2025, steel being the most predominant material of choice for exterior components.
The report by Research and Markets, assessed steel, aluminum, plastics, glass composites and carbon composites. The report found that steel will witness competition from plastics and carbon composite materials within time.
High prices of these composites have limited the use of them. Sustainability is expected to emerge as a key megatrend which is likely to dictate the materials used for manufacturing car exteriors and pose greater challenges for automobile designers.
Application of carbon fiber has been limited to high performance cars because of high carbon fiber cost. Several manufacturers are developing low-cost carbon fiber grade with similar mechanical properties, comparable to high-cost variants. This is expected to spur carbon fiber demand in the automotive industry over the expected period.
The degree of competition is expected to remain high over the next five years.
Other things that were found include:
- The global market was valued at $10.46 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $19.2 billion by 2025, growing at an estimated CAGR of 7.0 percent from 2017 to 2025
- Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region and will probably register a demand of 8.87 million tons by 2025
- Steel holds 36 percent of the global market and is projected to retain its dominance over the forecast period as well.
- Development of lightweight substitutes for light and electric vehicles remains a major area of growth in this market.
- In terms of application, doors dominate the market with 29 percent of the market revenue
