How do you prepare for the future of mobility - and beyond?

"I think the first point to make is Dow has been in the automotive industry for a long time. We understood that the industry was going through the kind of change that happens once in a generation, or once in 100 years. In 2020 it created an enormous opportunity, where the whole industry was talking about material science and solutions with an openness that we hadn’t seen for a very long time.

"What we identified was that Dow, with our huge variety of technologies with chemistry sets ranging from silicones to polyurethanes, to plastics to acrylics, was sub optimizing the offering to our customers by going to market as product silos.

Customers were looking for solutions, not products. We brought our technology together on the MobilityScience™ platform to create one-stop-shop for the automotive industry.
The focus is on application rather than products."

"What is interesting about the transition to electric mobility is that there’s been a complete redesign of materials thinking.

“There has been a redesign of multiple functions.

“An example would be the challenge of managing heat transfer between the engine and battery. That has implications for fire safety. 

“Or, if you want to extend the range of a car, you increase the size of the battery. But then you’re carrying around dead weight, so lightweighting has become an opportunity to replace metal components with plastic using our ENGAGE™ polyolefin elastomer range.

“Another example is that an electric car does not have the white noise of the engine, and therefore the demand for acoustic materials has shot up. So, we see a huge growth in our BETAFOAM™ acoustic technologies.

“Energy efficiency has become one of the biggest material science needs. There is a demand for improved heat management to encapsulate electronics with thermally conductive materials. The materials must be sustainable because the overall objective of the switch to electric vehicles is low-carbon mobility.

“So, we are providing a new set of tools and the materials the industry is looking for."

“Circularity is one of the biggest challenges. It is being driven by regulation.
The EU end-of-life directive that’s going through the processes now in Brussels will impose strict regulations and drive demand for circularity.

“Typically, if you’re going to go circular, you will recycle. But the auto industry requires very high-quality standards from high performance materials.

So, we are developing what we call advanced recycling, where we give the molecule a second life without compromising on the performance. This means starting back at the building block stage.”