Teijin to establish Teijin Automotive Center Europe GmbH

Envisioned demonstration (left) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) experiments (right) to be performed at the new center. Source | Teijin Ltd.

Teijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced on Jan. 28 that it plans to establish a new automotive center in Wuppertal, Germany next month, to serve as a new base for technical functions within the company’s automotive composites business. Called Teijin Automotive Center Europe GmbH (TACE), the company will handle concept, designing, prototyping, evaluations, marketing and technical research for next-generation automotive components, utilizing the Teijin Group’s capabilities to provide multi-material solutions for next-generation vehicles.

Due to the opportunity for increased collaboration within the Teijin Group’s European composites bases, TACE is expected to speed up concept, designing, prototyping and the evaluation of technological proposals developed by each base. Eventually, TACE will also develop marketing and research functions to explore opportunities for new technologies and M&A, aiming to accelerate joint development with European automakers.

In addition, the company plans to pursue opportunities to establish bases for automotive composite technical functions in the U.S. and China. Backed by its European, U.S. and Chinese growth initiatives, Teijin is targeting automotive composite business sales of approximately €1.7 billion ($2 billion USD) by 2030.

Teijin says that it, along with the larger automotive industry, is transforming its business model to realize more lightweight and multi-functional next-generation vehicles, following an the ongoing shift toward connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) vehicles. Along these lines, Teijin acquired Continental Structural Plastics (CSP) in 2017 to become a Tier 1 supplier focused on multi-material automotive composite. In Europe, CSP’s French operation will open a new sheet molding compound plant and Teijin has acquired leading automotive-composite suppliers Inapal Plásticos SA of Portugal and Benet Automotive of Czech Republic. Teijin says that TACE will further leverage these moves and strengthen its multi-material capabilities in Europe.