Covestro, Genofort to advance flexible printed electronics system for automotive interiors
Last update on May 26, 2026
Automotive interior concepts are advancing toward surfaces that sense, respond, and adapt – seats that detect occupant posture, door panels that interpret touch, and headliners integrated with thermal regulation and health monitoring. Delivering these functions across three-dimensional geometries remains a material and integration challenge: conventional rigid materials and hard circuits lack the flexibility, durability, and integration capability that these architectures demand.
Covestro and Jiangsu Genofort have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop and industrialize ultra-flexible printed electronics haptic interaction systems for automotive interior applications, combining TPU film substrate development with haptic system integration expertise.
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Covestro to lead R&D of TPU film substrates
TPU films are identified as a critical substrate for ultra-flexible printed electronics systems. For printed electronics applied to automotive interior surfaces, the substrate must combine outstanding flexibility and durability with processing versatility, ink adhesion, and long-term stability. Under the MoU, Covestro will lead the research, development, and industrialization of the relevant thermoplastic polyurethane film substrates, addressing these requirements as part of a fully integrated value chain.
The collaboration targets key automotive interior applications including center consoles, steering wheels, door panels, seats, and headliners. The intended functional scope spans body-shape sensing, adaptive comfort, thermal regulation, health monitoring, and responsive touch interaction – with the ambition of integrating these into unified solutions that address both occupant comfort and cabin intelligence within a single system architecture.
Fully integrated value chain from material to finished system
Emerging cockpit concepts present a dual challenge: the material substrate must conform to increasingly complex three-dimensional designs, while also enabling the sensing and interaction functions that intelligent interior architectures require. The collaboration structure reflects this directly – Covestro's TPU film substrate development is positioned to complement Genofort's expertise in the development and industrialization of haptic interaction assembly systems, creating what the two companies describe as a fully integrated value chain from material to finished system.
"The next generation of intelligent cockpits places entirely new demands on interior materials. They must not only conform to complex surfaces, but also enable sensing and interaction functions," said Weihong Du, head of Marketing and Development Asia-Pacific, Specialty Films, Covestro. "Through our collaboration with Genofort, we aim to bring material innovation and system integration closely together, helping advance flexible haptic interaction technology from the laboratory to large-scale production and delivering differentiated solutions for automotive customers."
"Ultra-flexible haptic interaction systems represent a critical direction for the intelligent transformation of automotive interiors," said Lingyao Lu, chairman of Genofort. "Covestro's leadership in high-performance film materials forms a powerful complement to our proprietary system integration technology. This collaboration will accelerate the global adoption of ultra-flexible printed electronics, enable us to enter the global premium supply chain, and together open new frontiers in this arena."
Covestro and Genofort also plan to jointly support the development of relevant industry standards for ultra-flexible haptic technologies. This is framed as a step toward accelerating commercialization and broader adoption across the automotive sector – addressing a structural barrier that typically precedes wide deployment of emerging material systems in regulated industries.
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Image credits: Covestro