Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has published a new report titled "Smart Glass in the Automotive Sector -2013." This report projects that revenues from smart glass and related coatings sold to the automotive sector will reach $3.5 billion by 2018.
The worldwide automotive smart glass market, covering self-tinting, self-cleaning, self-healing and device-embedded glass. Eight-year revenue forecasts are included with break outs by type of materials, functionality and the applications within the vehicle in which smart glass is used. The smart glass applications covered are windshields, mirrors, sunroofs, other automotive windows and dashboards.
The companies discussed in this report include: 3M, American Glass, Apple, ASG, AutoGlass, Balcony Systems, BASF, Bayer, Cardinal, Carlex, ChromoGenics, Corning, Dow Chemical, Gentex, Guardian, Hitachi, Hypho Technology, NeoView Kolon, Nissan, NSG/Pilkington, Pleotint, RavenBrick, Research Frontiers, Saint-Gobain, Samsung, Solutia/Eastman, Sage, and others. The report also discusses adoption strategies for smart glass by the major automobile and light truck companies.
More from the report:
NanoMarkets' bullish view of automotive smart glass is fostered by the fact that smart glass is used to promote safety, style and fuel economy; exactly the factors that have led to new technology deployment in the automotive sector for decades. Today, dimmable mirrors are the only automotive application that uses large amounts of smart glass; they currently account for well over $450 million in annual smart glass consumption. However, novel coatings based on nanomaterials and biomaterials will emerge that will bring self-cleaning and self-repairing glass up to performance levels suitable for use in automotive applications.
Windshield glass usage in individual vehicles continues to increase as does the number of models with large areas of roof glass. Glass is also important to the worldwide trend towards smaller vehicles; greater use of glass generates an impression of light and space. This presents the smart glass suppliers with a growing addressable market, despite the automotive market being in the doldrums. Some small vehicles now have as many as 15 glazed apertures, many fundamental to the overall appearance of the vehicle.
The windshield should be the main target for automotive smart glass suppliers over the next decade and NanoMarkets expects the windshield aperture to consume $1.3 billion in smart glass products by 2018. Smart glass efforts are leading to such concepts as the wiperless windshield, the smart solar windshield and the self-repairing windshield.
Smart glass sales for automotive information systems are also likely to grow fast. Such systems already use touch-screen technology with a large-area touch sensor embedded in the top glass. In the future we will see more glass-embedded sensors that turn on lights or wipers as outside conditions vary. Augmented displays for navigation purposes will also require smart glass in both windshields and instrument panels; windshields will have to be treated with a reflective coating on one side and an anti-reflective coating on the other for data to be projected onto the dashboard. Sales of smart glass for device-embedded applications such as these will generate $710 million by 2018.
