BASF, Toyota, and Flex-N-Gate win SPE Automotive Innovation Award

BASF’s Ultramid B3ZG7 CR helps Toyota develop first of its kind third row free-standing seatbacks for 2021 Toyota Sienna

WYANDOTTE, MI, November 12, 2021 – BASF along with Flex-N-Gate and Toyota Motor North America Research and Development were recognized at the 50^th Annual Society of Plastics Engineers^® (SPE) International Automotive Innovation Awards Gala in the Body Interior Group. SPE honored their innovative use of plastics in achieving vehicle weight savings by reducing the mass of the third-row seat in the 2021 Toyota Sienna.

“This is a great recognition for us. This seat is 30% lighter compared to the previous model and is cost competitive while still exceeding all performance criteria,” said Todd Muck from the Body Design Seats Group at the Toyota R&D Center in Saline, Michigan. “This would not have been possible without the Toyota Seat Team and the support of BASF and Flex-N-Gate.”

The design of the third-row seat is a unique and enabling technology, designed without inserts as a fully injected seatback. The team also ensured that crash requirements were met.

“BASF’s proprietary computer aided engineering (CAE) tool ULTRASIM^® played a key role in allowing accurate CAE simulations during the development process,” said Jeff DeAlmeida, Vice President Transportation, BASF Performance Materials, North America.

SPE’s Automotive Innovation Awards program is the oldest and largest competition of its kind in the automotive and plastics industries. Dozens of teams made up of OEMs, tier suppliers and polymer producers submit nominations describing their part, system, or complete vehicle module and why it merits the claim as “Year’s Most Innovative Use of Plastics”.

Ultramid and Ultrasim are registered trademarks of BASF SE.

About BASF

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 17,000 employees in North America and had sales of $18.7 billion in 2020. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.com/us. At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. More than 110,000 employees in the BASF Group contribute to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of €59 billion in 2020. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S. Further information at http://www.basf.com