In a somewhat counterintuitive, but key statistic, paint and coatings account for around 30% of a vehicle’s total production costs, including facilities and energy, according to materials science publication, Azo materials. This is consequential.

With paintshop operations and technologies being such major contributors towards net energy output and sustainability footprints in vehicle production, the segment seems to be one of the most critically overlooked areas in automotive manufacturing carbon cutting efforts. But efforts are being made. To find out more about the latest developments in automotive paintshop, I visited the ABB robotics centre in Friedberg, Germany; one of ‘the big four’ players across automotive automation.