GE Plastics Technology, Design, & Innovation for the Environment Highlight Auto Shanghai 2007

At Shanghai's 12th International Automobile & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition, advanced materials technologies, design, and innovation for the environment underscores GE Plastics’ presence here. The company is featuring their wide range of high performance and technologically advanced materials on the new Chevrolet Volt concept car and the new Hyundai QarmaQ Advanced Technology Demonstration Vehicle (ATDV), both introduced in the first quarter of this year. GE Plastics’ environmentally progressive materials are excellent candidates to help deliver peak performance, enabled styling, and increased safety to passengers and pedestrians, while at the same time, helping automotive OEMs and designers reduce costs and meet new challenges in the marketplace.

GE Plastics' participation at Auto Shanghai 2007 marks yet another high point in a very eventful technology year for the company. In the following months, GE Plastics will continue to set a number of new standards in technology advancement and design innovation.

"GE's ecomagination* initiative epitomizes the theme of this year's show – 'Technology and Nature in Harmony'," said Eric Herman, general manager, GE Plastics, Automotive, China. "We are fully committed to the development of new environmentally progressive materials that reduce vehicle weight to help conserve fuel and eliminate secondary operations to reduce emissions. GE Plastics' materials can help China's auto industry meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements while providing exciting new choices for designing tomorrow's cars and trucks."

GE Plastics served as a strategic supplier to General Motors in the design and development of the Chevrolet Volt, contributing materials technology that reduced part weight by up to 50 percent while enabling innovative glazing and body panel designs. Composites made with GE's Xenoy iQ* resins on the Volt doors and hood address three critical environmental concerns:  conserving energy, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and regenerating post-consumer waste such as polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles. GE Plastics materials are also featured in the front fenders, transparent roof and side windows, and wire coating.

GE Plastics materials also played a key role in the Elastic Front* safety system featured on the QarmaQ, which encompasses the whole front end of the vehicle and is arguably the world's first global pedestrian protection solution on a Crossover Utility Vehicle.

GE Plastics continues its technology investments in China, particularly in equipment that will provide new capabilities for application development, industrial design, engineering, value-added technical support, and process development. In 2006, GE Plastics added a 2,700-ton Husky injection-compression molding machine for development of large auto body panels. This equipment supports the growth and competitive position of the Chinese auto industry by enabling OEMs to create highly styled, lightweight thermoplastic body panels using high-performance GE resins.