How do OEMs decide which is the best material for body closures? What role do the price and the material’s features play? To help understand these issues better; Christian Roy, Closures Technical Leader at PSA Peugeot Citroën did an exclusive interview with Automotive IQ. Want to learn more? Find out here: http://bit.ly/Interview_Roy For more information visit our website: http://bit.ly/SP_AutomotiveDoorWebsite

1. Automotive IQ recently spoke with Christian Roy, Closures Technical Leader, PSA Peugeot
Citroën, France, about today’s choices of materials and the constant balancing between weight
and costs.
Mr. Roy, you will present at our conference on doors and components in June 2015 and you will
focus on the 308 SW’s plastic tailgate. Obviously the first question that comes to mind is why
plastic and not other lightweight materials?
Plastic is a well-known material for PSA with a long history of up to 30 years that started with
Citroen. Obviously the plastic offers greats advantages in architecture reaching good weight
savings and limiting the overall cost compared to steel.
Did you encounter any challenges when designing or working on the plastic tailgates that are
important to consider?
Weight was the first challenge which lead us to innovative solutions. The second challenge was
quality which lead us working on every detail for perceived quality, squeaks and rattles and gaps
and flush.
What are the challenges that body closures engineers face these days when creating new
closure systems?
If I have to resume with 3 words it would be: quality, weight and cost.
If you were to give an advice to other OEMs regarding choice of materials for body closures
what would this be?
The first thing is to define the priority between weight and cost. If weight is chosen, two questions
come immediately: What is the limit of the overall cost that you accept to pay? And: Is the process
adoptable for new material?
“…What is the limit of the overall cost that you accept to pay?
And is the process adoptable for new material?”