Corporate Vehicle Manufacturer uses Bio-PET

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has announced it plans to make vehicle liner material and other interior surfaces from a new “Ecological Plastic” that features the world’s first use of bio-PET and by a large corporate. 

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) consists of 70% terephthalic acid and 30% monoethylene glycol, by weight; bio-PET is made by replacing monoethylene glycol with a biological raw material derived from sugar cane.

The epoch-making bio-PET-based Ecological Plastic—developed with Toyota Tsusho Corporation—is characterized by: 1) enhanced performance (heat-resistance, durability performance, shrink resistance) compared to conventional bio-plastics and performance parity with petroleum-based PET, 2) the potential to approach the cost-per-part performance of petroleum-based plastics through volume production and 3) usability in seats and carpeting and other interior components that require a high level of performance unattainable by hitherto Ecological Plastic.

TMC use the term “Ecological plastic” as opposed to bio-plastic to distinguish it by superior technical properties specifically tailored to automotive applications.

 Starting with the luggage-compartment liner in the Lexus “CT200h” due very soon, TMC plans to increase both the number of vehicle series featuring the new material, as well as the amount of vehicle-interior area covered by it, and intends to introduce a vehicle model in 2011 in which Ecological Plastic will cover 80 percent of the vehicle interior.

Ecological Plastic has the benefit of being more carbon neutral than conventional petroleum-based plastics, meaning it can lessen product-life-cycle CO2 emissions; use of it can contribute to a reduction in the use of limited petroleum resources.  TMC has been engaged in applying Ecological Plastics to automobiles since 2000, and, in May 2003, became the first in the world to use in a mass-production vehicle a bio-plastic made from polyactic acid (PLA), which was introduced in the spare tire cover and floor mats of the Japanese-market “Raum” small car.  TMC has since expanded its use of Ecological Plastic, achieving the world’s highest level3 of use of bio-plastics in a vehicle by using it to cover 60 percent of the exposed surfaces of interior parts in the “Sai” hybrid sedan launched in December 2009.