The Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers International (SPE, Troy, Mich.) has announced that it will honor the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership (FC&FP) with its Executive Leadership Team Award at the 38th-annual SPE Automotive Innovation Competition & Awards Gala on Thursday, Nov. 20, at Burton Manor in Livonia, Mich.

The award recognizes the partnership’s leadership in sponsoring research on ‘leapfrog’ technologies in plastics and composites for automotive applications and its work in helping develop technologies for the next generation of vehicle transportation. The honor will be accepted by a team representing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the United States Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR), through which the three U.S. automakers – Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. – participate in the FC&FP.

Suzanne Cole, president, Cole & Associates and past chair of the SPE Automotive Division, who will present the award, said, “The U.S. government is committed to promoting the transformation of the transportation sector via development of lightweight, efficient and sustainable vehicles and an infrastructure to support them. Through USCAR, the Detroit automakers are advancing collaborative automotive research, which includes polymer composites technology, for future vehicle architectures. We, on the SPE Automotive Division Board of Directors, believe that plastics and composite materials will be key enablers for the development of safe and sustainable transportation, and we applaud the efforts of the FC&FP for ushering in polymer-based technologies for advanced-propulsion systems and lightweight, durable, safe vehicle structures.”   
 
Maria Ciliberti, Global Automotive director, Ticona, and also the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards chair for 2008 added, “We selected FC&FP as the recipient of our 2008 Executive Leadership Team Award for the group’s vision in making plastics and composites top research priorities within the materials arena. From lightweight, durable, sustainable materials for clean-sheet vehicle architectures to membrane separators for advanced batteries, and plastics for building the hydrogen infrastructure needed for a safe and convenient fuel-delivery system, plastics and polymer composites have already proven to be enabling technologies for alternative powertrains, ranging from gas-electric hybrids to advanced battery and hydrogen vehicle technologies.”

Key areas of research by the FC&FP include lightweight structures/low-cost carbon fiber; lithium-ion batteries; and hydrogen fuel/fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs). 

Accepting the award at the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on behalf of USCAR will be Chrysler’s Freedom CAR director and member of the USCAR Leadership Group, Ann Schlenker, Chrysler LLC director of Advance Vehicle Engineering & Alliances.
  
This year’s SPE Automotive Innovation Awards gala will be held at Burton Manor in Livonia, Mich. For more information about the Automotive Innovation Awards Competition and Gala or to download nomination forms and rules, visit the SPE Automotive Division’s website at www.speautomotive.com/inno.htm, or contact the group at 248-244-8993.