Pictured above: In the foreground: Christopher Mokwa, senior VP corporate strategy and M&A, Hella; Felicie Burelle, senior executive VP strategy and development, Plastic Omnium.

In the background: Laurent Burelle, chairman and CEO, Plastic Omnium and Dr Rolf Breidenbach, CEO, Hella.

Plastic Omnium and Hella have announced the launch of an innovative co-development project on integrated solutions, combining exterior body parts and lighting.

The collaboration will involve engineering and design experts from both companies based in Germany, will be focused on jointly developing new systems integrating innovative lighting technologies, and intelligent exterior systems, at the front and at the rear of the car.  

Laurent Burelle, chairman and CEO, Plastic Omnium said: “This new partnership between Plastic Omnium and Hella, will provide the market with combined technologies and solutions, bringing together the best of the know-how on both companies on new styling and advanced functionalities for the body exterior. This will enhance the offer towards our customers in the fields of smart bumpers and tailgates, enriched with communication and lighting features.”

Dr Rolf Breidenbach, CEO, Hella said: "Lighting is shaping the vehicle design more than ever. The demand for individualisation and differentiation will continue to grow in the future. Additionally, lighting can also contribute to communication and safety in automated driving scenarios. By further deepening the collaboration with our long-standing partner Plastic Omnium, we will have additional opportunities to further drive these market trends and offer our customers new levels of freedom in terms of functionality and design."

Both companies are already involved in a global partnership through HBPO, worldwide leader of development, assembly and logistics of Front-End Modules solutions. In 2018 HBPO reported sales revenue of € 2 billion (Rs 16,100 crore).

Plastic Omnium said with this technological partnership it continues to underpin its innovation strategy, which is supported by 3,500 engineers in 24 R&D centres worldwide. It continues to invest around 6 percent of its revenue every year.

The company further says its innovative capabilities have also been recently reinforced with the launch of a partnership with Brose on innovative side-door systems; the creation of ‘Plastic Omnium New Energies’, which is dedicated to the development of clean energies of the future, specifically hydrogen and fuel cells.  Plastic Omnium is also construction extension of 3 new R&D centres, combined with an open innovation network. This the company says with its expertises and investments will enable it to find additional growth opportunities in meeting the technological challenges of autonomous and clean vehicles.