BASF in cars
The automotive industry is one of BASF’s most important customer sectors. The company generated around 17 percent of its turnover with products for the automotive industry in 2016.
BASF is the leading chemical supplier to the automotive industry. There are approximately 1.2 billion cars on the roads around the world and the number is rising further. Even now, half of all cars worldwide feature a paint coat or plastic component from BASF, whose customers include all major manufacturers in the automotive sector. Among others, plastics, coatings, pigments, fuel additives and catalysts from BASF make automobiles more efficient and lighter; they reduce pollutant emissions and provide the basis for combining functional and appealing design. Our graphic provides additional information on some BASF products that are used in cars and how they perform.
Battery technology is the heart of electric vehicles. Batteries need to bepowerful, quick charging and affordable. This is a task for chemistry, becausebatteries are small power plants that convert chemical into electrical power.And this is one of the greatest challenges for the future. BASF primarilydevelops cathode materials and electrolyte formulations designed to improvethe performance of existing battery systems. Other projects focus onresearching materials and components for future generations of batteries thatfeature a higher storage capacity, performance and lifetime. The objectivesare clear: Vehicles in the Bolt and Tesla class equipped with commonly usedlithium-ion batteries currently have a range of 300 to 500 kilometers, so it ishoped that future battery generations such as lithium-sulfur systems will morethan double the range affordably.
