Global Market Review of Automotive Wiper Blades

The average wiper blade wipes the windscreen over 1m times in a year, and travels 800 miles in this time. Temperature extremes, heavy precipitation and repetitive friction on the windscreen have a damaging effect on wiper blade performance over time. A blade's natural rubber provides the most flexible and resilient edge for wiping across glass, but it eventually dries out and deteriorates.

The flat wiper blade continues to dominate the OE market, driven by the need for product quality, comfort and aesthetics. While European wiper makers refer to flat blades, American manufacturers talk of 'beam blades'. While the European vehiclemakers have long since adopted flat blades, the North American market is catching-up albeit gradually. While demand for flat blades in Europe has grown at a phenomenal rate over the past decade, manufacturers see no reason why demand shouldn't continue to grow. Manufacturers say there are very few vehicles being built these days equipped with conventional blades. Although flat blades are also appearing on the rear window, the market is divided between conventional and flat blades depending on the OEM.

Over the past decade, manufacturers have continued to develop so-called flat wiper blades. The market drivers are product quality, comfort and aesthetics, say manufacturers. An auto executive told us: Generally speaking, the flat is dominating the market now. There are no new cars coming through - other than Japanese cars - which are not specifying beam blades. The Japanese cars are still using some conventional blades and some what we call a hybrid which is really a mixture of conventional and a beam blade. Also, the other significant trend is that the length of the flat blade is increasing, particularly on the driver side. The performance requirements are also becoming more and more stringent with higher speeds. The longer blades relate to the fact that windshields are becoming larger as well as legislation regarding wipe quality on the driver's side.

Another auto executive said: We are looking at new vehicles which will come out in two to three years time, most of which will feature flat blades. Among the very low-end vehicles, there might be some conventional blades but for all other cars in Europe we see these flat blades being sourced. So we can say that flat blades have been a success story. The technology appeared eight to ten years ago and now we have penetration of flat blades of almost 100% which is a relatively short period.

In this fifth edition, just-auto reviews the key market drivers for wiper blades, and updates the market analysis. Following our market overview in Chapter 1, just-auto's product forecasts in Chapter 2 predict the market worldwide (and in North America, Western Europe, Japan and China) for OE wiper blades and systems from 2005 through 2016.

Chapter two starts with reviewing latest market trends, looking firstly at the OE market and then the replacement blade market. We review the major market players and we provide lengthy interviews with Denso Europe BV's Aftermarket Sales division and Valeo's Wiper Systems branch.

The market shares section provides 2008 sales volume % for OE wiper systems for world, Europe, North America and the equivalent shares for aftermarket sales volumes in Europe and North America. We also comment on the South American and Japanese markets.

The market forecasts provide a comprehensive overview of the historic and future OE volumes and values. This section begins with just-auto's OE market volumes for wiper blades in North America, Western Europe, Japan and China from 2005 to 2016. Forecast years include best and worst case scenarios. It then provides the same criteria but for market values. This section finally provides equivalent OE market value data for complete wiper systems.

Chapter 3 Technical review

This chapter sets out a review of recent innovations in this arena, such as Trico's Winter Pinch Tab blade, Bosch's universal adapter, clutch-motors and electronically-controlled twin motor systems.

Chapter 4 Manufacturers

This chapter provides profiles of the major manufacturers, namely Bosch, Denso, Federal Mogul, Trico and Valeo.