PIAE Plastic in Automotive Engineering 2025

Mannheim, March 26th-27th

PIAE seminars report

Executive summary: PIAE2024 took place in May 2024, one year ago it was the first major Automotive plastic events following the ELV regulation proposal from the EU parliament released on July 2023 . By then the recycled content targets of 25% / 25% (25% PCR including 25% ELV PCR) was set as the official target. The market was expecting 15% / 25%, so most OEM were surprised. The OEMs and key material suppliers presented their laboratory investigations, feasibility analysis and strategies to tackle these targets across polymers and applications, mostly PP, mostly Bumpers. This year at PIAE 2025, ELV recycling gained further visibility, with 60% presentations on Automotive plastic recycling and with most exhibitors showing PCR parts or compounds. The OEM were on the front line, with more maturity than last year, with examples of pilot vehicles (Scoda, Renault 5), holistic polymer study (BMW), above and beyond rPP from Bumpers including rPA66 (Bosch), rPC/ABS or rPET (Audi), fully validated commercial parts (Audi), new recycling technologies (Fraunhofer), closed loop concepts (Simoldes).

Overall the OEM were optimistics on the technical feasibility of ELV R (Renault, BMW, VW, Audi, Hyundai Motor..) : “ we are getting ready !” or “providing that we set up collaboration along the supply chain, it is possible to reach the ELV closed loop content target !” , claiming moreover the CO2 foot print reduction, although not quantified target in the ELV R. Nevertheless, Automotive OEM lobby in Brussels represented by ACEA was more critical one week before at the IARC ,advocating to reduce and delay the PCR content targets and including PIR content. The discussion between the EU parliament and the EU council , following a Trilogue review in June should deliver a final recommendation in September.

Other 2 remarkable presentations were from Frank Stammer (Techpart) who integrated and compared both EU plastic recycling regulations (PPWR and ELV R) , and from Timo Unger (Hyundai) who show the level of uncertainty on the material flow and recycling capacity resulting from ELV R in 2032.

Sustinplas will publish a full report on the status of ELV resulting from the PIAE and IARC conferences , for sales by End of April.

·        Technical validation of Closed loop Plastic in Automotive

·        Maturity of the ELV regulation impact

·        Uncertainty along the value chain

·        Mixed message from the Automotive industry to the policy makers