Why electric cars will require thermoforming ++ technologies

The new car companies will be companies that can design & build the complete top hat

We’re approaching a future where car drive platforms will be skateboards and top hats. The former refers to the flat, often self-supporting chassis of an electric vehicle, housing a large battery pack in the middle and motors at either end, along with the suspension, brakes and wheels. Upon this sits the top hat, which is car designer-speak for the body and interior of a vehicle.

The new car companies will be companies that can design & build the complete top hat – exterior & interior panels for electric vehicles using processes like vacuum forming, vacuum lamination, neo-TOM & Wet Compression Moulding for lightweight, great NVH, superior look & feel panels with paint-free processes.

The exterior panels will be a sandwich - base will be ABS made using the vacuum forming process, B-surface would be glass fibre with paper honey comb and resin made using the wet compression moulding process, A-surface would be UV protected speciality film made using the neo-TOM process. All these technologies would make the exterior panels class A metallic looking without any paint on it, light weight & strong NVH.

The interiors of the EV will play a significance role - there will be digital displays along with soft-feel artificial leather TPO made using the vacuum lamination or IMG thermoforming process and metallic or wooden looking plastic parts made using the IMD or TOM thermoforming process.