Your next new car may need windows produced from high-strength plastic. That allows you to shed as much weight as possible to assist boost fuel economy, vehicles just like the new Ford Transit Connect may soon use the plastics to switch the rear window, and the 2014 Fiat 500L already does, The Detroit News reports.

The large benefits to using the high-strength (polycarbonate) plastic in automotive windows is its light weight and skill to be molded into almost any shape – proof of which are present in current automotive headlights, 95 percent of which might be fabricated from the high-strength plastic. Though glass windows reportedly only make up about 100 pounds of a vehicle’s weight, polycarbonate windows have the capability to shed half that weight.

The ability for the high-strength plastic windows to be easily molded allows automakers to exploit polycarbonates not to only drop extra pounds, but in addition make their vehicles more aerodynamic. As an example, the 2014 Fiat 500L’s fixed rear-side windows (behind the rear-passenger doors) are manufactured from polycarbonate. The high-strength plastic reportedly allowed Fiat to design the windows right into a single seamless part with its spoiler.

Another automaker working with the plastics is Ford. The Blue Oval is supposedly putting the plastics through a ten,000-hour durability testing cycle. If it’s ok with the implications, the windows might appear at the new Transit Connect – though after the compact van’s 2014-model-year introduction.

It’ll likely take years before polycarbonate windows appear at the majority of latest cars. One obstacle is cost; the plastics are almost twice as expensive because the glass they replace. One more reason is that federal regulations only allow the plastics for use within the rear and roofs of car, as emergency first responders may have a troublesome time breaking during the windows. If the polycarbonate trend catches on and the durable plastic proves itself during crash testing, polycarbonate windows might just make up automotive windshields someday.

Source: The Detroit News