A new rear-seat carrier completely made of PP "Xmod" from Borealis (Vienna / Austria; www.borealisgroup.com) will be used to replace a PU and steel hybrid model in a new model of the BMW “7 Series” car later this year. The new rear-seat carrier design is 35% lighter than its predecessor, cutting the weight of the car by about 4 kg, according to the polyolefins producer, providing Xmod high performance short glass fibre-reinforced PP. A simplified moulding manufacturing process should generate significant cost savings, it said.

The rear-seat carrier will be used initially in the new BMW 7 Series, to be launched later this year, and later in the BMW 5 Series. Borealis designed the monosandwich product jointly with BMW, and the product will be manufactured by the car manufacturer in Wackersdorf / Germany.