Plastic Omnium and Hella enter into strategic partnership

Automotive suppliers Hella and Plastic Omnium are entering into a strategic cooperation, with the focus of the non-exclusive cooperation to accelerate the holistic integration of exterior vehicle lighting technologies, especially for the front and rear areas. Hella contributes to the collaboration through its competence in automotive lighting technology, while Plastic Omnium brings the expertise in plastics processing for exterior body parts. The plan is to also bundle the corresponding development resources together at one site in Germany.

“Lighting is shaping vehicle design more than ever and 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,” said Hella CEO Dr. Rolf Breidenbach. “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.”

“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 from 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,” added Laurent Burelle, chairman and CEO of Plastic Omnium.

Hella and Plastic Omnium have been working together successfully for several years as part of the joint venture HBPO. The joint venture is a world market leader in the assembly and customer-specific supply of front-end modules. In the calendar year 2018, HBPO generated sales of 2 billion euros.