Will your next car have plastic windows?
If you wear glasses to correct your vision, chances are good you already know the benefits of polycarbonate lenses over glass ones. Not only are polycarbonate lenses significantly lighter, they鈥檙e also much more impact-resistant than glass.
Polycarbonate windows have been used in racing聽聽for years to shed pounds, and the time may be right to roll out plastic windows in production cars, too. As聽聽tells us,聽聽will join more exotic offerings (like the聽聽and the聽) in using plastic for some of its glazing.
聽glass typically weighs around 100 pounds, but polycarbonate windows can cut that figure in half. These days, every pound counts, so switching to plastic for the fixed rear windows and sunroof panels becomes an easy way to shed weight.
If plastic side windows are good enough for race cars, why not deploy them on production cars as well? The short answer is safety, since polycarbonate is too flexible and too impact resistant. First responders would have a difficult time breaking plastic windows, especially compared to the ease at which they can shatter glass windows.聽
In other words, current safety regulations prohibit the use of polycarbonate in door windows and windshields, since plastic windows increase the risk of injury to unbelted passengers (since they don鈥檛 shatter), while upping the complexity of rescue or escape from a burning or sinking聽.
Questions remain on polycarbonate鈥檚 scratch and haze resistance as well. Headlight housings have been made of polycarbonate for years, but headlights scratch and yellow over time.
To counter hazing, manufacturers could add a UV-blocking layer, though this doesn鈥檛 address the scratching issue. The other potential stumbling block is cost, since polycarbonate windows can be twice as expensive as their glass equivalents.
That will likely change as demand for plastic windows increases and the production numbers rise.聽聽may be among the first automakers to embrace the idea, but聽is just about done with its own polycarbonate window testing. Plastic rear windows could appear on the next聽听惫补苍.
As automakers look to boost聽聽in any way they car, such evolutionary steps are unavoidable. As to whether or not plastic is a viable replacement material for glass in auto glazing, we鈥檒l find out over the next decade.聽
