- Twenty percent lighter than the previous composite design
- Sixty percent recycled polyamide content
BASF, Stellantis and L&L Products received the 2026 Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Innovation Award in the chassis/hardware category for the next-generation composite tunnel reinforcement (CTR) on the 2027 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The CTR, which transfers crash loads between the vehicle structure and transmission crossmember, advances vehicle lightweighting, sustainability and structural performance, building on an earlier composite design.
“At Stellantis, we continually evaluate new technologies that improve our vehicles performance and sustainability,” said Mitch Marozzi, Chassis Mount Design Lead, Stellantis. “This next-generation composite tunnel reinforcement helps us meet structural requirements while advancing our sustainability goals.”
This award-winning application combines L&L Products’ Continuous Composite System™ (CCS) technology with BASF’s Ultramid® B3Z HP RC02, a 60% post-industrial recycled (PIR), impact-modified polyamide (PA6) material. The result is a 13% lighter structural component with a 40% lower product carbon footprint and a 20% higher peak loading performance than the previous composite design.
“This program highlights the benefits of integrating innovative materials, design and manufacturing technologies early in development,” said Ron Cullimore, Senior Product Development Engineer, L&L Products. “Our collaborative approach and CCS technology helped the team reduce mass, simplify the design and create a scalable solution.”
Material innovation, when combined with Ultrasim® computer-aided engineering (CAE) collaboration between BASF and L&L Products, optimizes design to increase sustainability while reducing cost. This new Ultramid PIR PA6 delivers excellent energy absorption properties and superior flow characteristics, underscoring the application’s broader value.
“Projects like this demonstrate the value of close collaboration,” said Chris Korson, Market Segment Manager, BASF Performance Materials. “By combining advanced composite technology with recycled polyamide content, the team delivered a lightweight structural component and helped our customer reduce mass and work towards their sustainability goals.”
Ultramid and Ultrasim are registered trademarks of BASF SE.
Jeep is a registered trademark of FCA LLC.
Continuous Composite System and CCS are trademarks of L&L Products.
About BASF
BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 13,300 employees in North America and had sales of $18.1 billion in 2025. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.com/us.
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. Our ambition: We want to be the preferred chemical company to enable our customers’ green transformation. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Around 95,000 employees in the BASF Group contribute to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio comprises, as core businesses, the segments Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, and Nutrition & Care; our standalone businesses are bundled in the segments Surface Technologies and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of around €60 billion in 2025. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the United States. Further information at www.basf.com.
