How can cars be designed to be more attractive, more environmentally friendly, more efficient, and safer? These are questions that Evonik Industries has answers to. The car of the future doesn’t yet fly—but its lightweight construction owes something to aircraft design anyway. The rear spoiler of a RED Motorsport Lotus Exige weighs next to nothing, thanks to ROHACELL, an extremely rigid, but lightweight, structural foam made from PMI (polymethacrylimide), which is used as a core material for sandwich constructions. Other innovations include: "green" tires that produce less rolling resistance (which in turn translates into greater fuel economy), a specialty catalyst that makes it possible to convert canola oil into biodiesel, and Evonik’s methacrylates which are monomers that act both as a base for pigment and as a clear scratch-resistant finish.
