Shanghai, 21 April, 2010 – Bayer MaterialScience and Tongji University Automotive College signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) today at a special ceremony during a forum titled “Road to Green for China’s Auto Industry.”
As part of the agreement, Bayer will share its expertise on new technologies, as well as collaborate with the University on new areas for innovation in China’s automotive industry. The Tongji University partnership is expected to help further develop China’s future engineering talent and foster local innovations across the automotive value chain.  Today’s ceremony also featured a number of prominent speakers from Bayer, Tongji and the automotive industry, outlining some of the breakthrough technologies that will pave the way for the future of a more sustainable, environmentally friendly automotive industry.

Over the last year, China has become the world’s largest consumer and manufacturer of automobiles and continues to be a global driver of growth for the industry. This increases the prominence of China and its role as an automobile manufacturer, designer and consumer, and its potential impact on the global environment. “China is uniquely positioned to play a crucial role in the development of a more sustainable automobile industry,” emphasized Michael Koenig, President of Bayer MaterialScience Greater China. “With its strong engineering talent, its manufacturing prowess, and the world’s largest automobile market, China has the potential to become a major player in the design and manufacturing of next-generation energy efficient vehicles.  Our goal for this partnership with Tongji University is to help accelerate innovation and the overall development of a more sustainable automobile industry in China,” he said.

As a part of the agreement, Bayer MaterialScience will share its expertise and provide material solutions for the development of both interior and exterior car design. The emphasis will be on sustainable solutions, from using lightweight materials to reduce the energy required to power a vehicle like polycarbonate glazing or polyurethane composite materials, to the use of waterborne coatings, which are better for the environment, and other broader areas in terms of comfort, appearance and safety.

As a part of the agreement, Tongji University Automotive College engineering students will have special internship opportunities, where they will be able to gain valuable real-world experience working at Bayer MaterialScience.

Bayer MaterialScience will also have the opportunity to collaborate with one of China’s most prominent experts in fuel-cell technology development, the President of Tongji University’s Automotive College, Yu Zhuoping. Professor Yu holds that China’s high-speed urbanization has provided great opportunities for electrical driving systems, including pure electric and fuel cells, to replace internal combustion engines.

Professor Yu stated: “Tongji University’s Automotive College has consistently been making contributions to the development of China’s electric automotive industry. Take pure electric and fuel cell electric vehicles as examples. The college is working efficiently and effectively, from technology R&D to market analysis. We’re very pleased to cooperate with Bayer MaterialScience to leverage their expertise, and the specialties of each party, committing together to China’s automotive industry in its development of sustainable energy vehicles and overall sustainable development.”

In addition to the MOU signing ceremony, also at today’s event, industry leaders and luminaries from across China’s automotive industry shared insights and perspectives on the nation’s rapidly growing automotive market. There were also a number of presentations, covering new areas of innovation as well as cases specific to the China market.

Bayer MaterialScience has an extensive track record of innovative automobile industry firsts.  In 1967, the company presented the world’s first "all-plastic car" presented at the Kunststoffe plastics fair in Germany in 1967, and has also presented solutions for futuristic concept cars such as the eXasis and Senso cars from Rinspeed.  An example of such innovation was on display recently at the Bayer MaterialScience booth at Chinaplas 2010: the i-mode concept car, developed in close collaboration with Hyundai.