Automotive & transport
A modern car is roughly half plastic by volume. Polymers cut weight, cost and corrosion, and consolidate many metal parts into one moulding — and electric vehicles push that even harder, because every kilogram saved is range gained.
On the numbers: every material named links to its cited entry. This page is the selection story — why the material choice climbs as the requirement gets harder.
Most of the plastic in a car is cheap commodity resin; you only climb to engineering plastics and composites where the requirement forces it.
Composites & high-performance
Mass where it matters most — stiffness and strength per kilogram, and part consolidation.
e.g. Body panels, structural chassis, EV battery enclosures, performance parts
Engineering plastics
Heat, chemical resistance and real mechanical load — under-hood and load-bearing parts.
e.g. Intake manifolds, connectors, gears, lighting lenses, structural clips
| Zone | What drives it | Typical material |
|---|---|---|
| Bumpers & fascia | Impact energy absorption, paintable, cheap at volume — the archetypal commodity-plastic part. | PP / TPO |
| Interior & trim | Dashboards, door cards, consoles — appearance, feel and cost, low structural demand. | PP, ABS, PC/ABS |
| Under-hood | Hot, chemically harsh, load-bearing — glass-filled nylon replaced metal in intake manifolds decades ago. | Glass-filled PA66, PPS |
| Fuel & fluid systems | Blow-moulded multilayer tanks with a barrier layer — light, corrosion-proof, complex shapes. | HDPE (with EVOH barrier) |
| Lighting & glazing | Optical clarity and impact resistance replaced glass in headlamp lenses. | PC, PMMA |
| Body & structure | Glass-composite panels for low tooling cost; carbon where mass and stiffness justify it. | SMC glass, carbon-epoxy |
| EV battery enclosure | A newer, demanding part — structural, crash-protective, flame-retardant and thermally managed. | Flame-retardant composite / engineering plastic |
Electrification
A heavy battery makes lightweighting worth more — mass directly costs range. EVs add a wholly new demanding part, the battery enclosure: structural, crash-protective, flame-retardant and thermally managed, which pulls composites and high-performance plastics down-market.
Recyclability — the honest catch
Thermoplastics (PP, nylon) can be melted and re-used; thermoset composites cannot, which is exactly why the carbon that saves mass is the material that is hardest to recycle at end of life. Real selection weighs that trade, not just stiffness per kilogram.
Part of the Make map. Compare candidates in the cited database, size a composite panel with the laminate calculator, or see aerospace and 3D printing.