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On October 28, 2025, a theme talk focusing on automotive industry transformation — “Light Follows Intelligent Change, Scenery Born from the Heart — The Cabin Evolution and Opportunities Brought by Transparent Mobility” — drew industry attention. In the presentation, Liu Fengxi, Chairman of Shanghai Astrace New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that with the tides of automotive intelligence and transparency sweeping through, traditional cabin boundaries are being broken. Automotive glass is evolving from a simple “spatial boundary” into the cockpit’s core interactive medium. The smart glass industry has arrived at a trillion-yuan-level commercial opportunity, and Astrace Group, leveraging twenty-two years of technological accumulation and forward-looking deployment, is becoming a key leader in this track.
1. Trend Reshaping: “Intelligence + Transparency” Dual Drive — Glass Becomes the Cabin’s “New Core”
The current transformation in the automotive industry revolves around two main threads: “transparency” and “intelligence.” Data show that new energy vehicles (NEVs) have become the market mainstream — from 777,000 units sold in 2017 to 12.866 million units in 2024, with 2025 sales expected to reach 15.5 million units and a penetration rate rising to 58%. Along with NEV proliferation, “large glass” has become a hallmark design: the current fitment rate of large panoramic roofs in NEVs has exceeded 75%. Leading brands such as Tesla, Xiaomi, and Xpeng equip nearly 100% of their models with full panoramic roofs or large sunroofs. The Xiaomi SU7’s total vehicle glass area even reaches 5.35 m².
△ Liu Fengxi, Chairman of Shanghai Zhude△
“The role of glass is undergoing a disruptive change,” Liu Fengxi emphasized. In the past, glass only served as a “transparent boundary,” suffering from pain points such as poor insulation, weak UV protection, and insufficient blast resistance. Today, it has become the cabin’s largest-area, most direct-experience, and most promising interactive carrier — acting as an intelligent dimming element that can control light and change color by zone on demand; as a “mobile canvas” capable of starry ceilings and light-shadow interactions for aesthetic effects; and as a display terminal that can carry dynamic streaming media, 4K–8K high-definition content, and even serve as an “emotional carrier” for cultural value transmission.
Upgraded consumer demand is further accelerating this trend. Currently, more than 80% of the cabin’s visual field is covered by glass. User needs have shifted from “solving basic pain points such as insulation and blast protection” to an integrated demand for “function, aesthetics, and intelligence.” Users now expect not only to block harmful rays such as UV and infrared, but also to create emotional value through glass aesthetics, and achieve intelligent features like “on-demand dimming” and “dynamic zoning.” Glass is becoming the “core variable” that defines the cabin experience.
2. Value Explosion: Smart Glass Supports a Trillion-Yuan Market — Pain Points Become Opportunities
“The next major opportunity in smart cabins lies in smart glass,” Liu Fengxi stated bluntly. At the core of smart glass is smart film technology — film materials that encompass multiple functions such as intelligent dimming, transparent light effects, active display, and smart energy harvesting. These films are the key to realizing the “intelligent upgrade” of glass.
From a market perspective, the smart glass industry has evolved into a trillion-yuan blue ocean driven by both replacement and incremental demand. On one hand, it is set to replace traditional products such as window films, sunshades, and sunroof insulation layers, with the replacement market alone exceeding 50 billion yuan. On the other hand, as emerging needs such as smart display, optoelectronic integration, and glass aesthetics continue to rise, the incremental market has also surpassed 50 billion yuan — bringing the overall market potential to over 100 billion yuan.
However, the industry still needs to overcome multiple challenges: how to significantly reduce material, production, and lamination costs? How to balance “product effect and cost” to achieve the best-all-around performance in color, haze, insulation, and response speed? How to address lamination and installation difficulties for doubly curved large-radius glass? “But problems are exactly opportunities,” Liu Fengxi said, noting that solving these pain points is where technological innovation meets commercial value.
3. Future Vision: Every Pane of Glass Becomes a “Smart Terminal,” and Ecosystem Collaboration Is Key
Regarding the future of smart glass, Liu Fengxi painted a clear picture: “Beyond functions, it must be intelligent and aesthetic — in the future, every piece of automotive glass will be a smart glass, integrating four core capabilities: intelligence, aesthetics, display, and energy harvesting.”
Specifically, future cabins will achieve multiple breakthroughs: the vehicle’s glass can seamlessly switch between “full transparent mode” and “zoned intelligent dimming” to meet different scenario needs; deep integration of sound, light, electricity, and networks will enable glass to interact with in-vehicle systems to create immersive cabin aesthetic experiences; electro-luminescent technologies will become widespread, allowing glass to directly carry 4K–8K active displays; and the fusion of “smart film + power-generating film” will make glass an on-board supplemental energy terminal.
3MDT dimming film sunroof lamination
OMTD optoelectronic film sunroof lamination
Astrace Group has already taken practical steps — Astrace’s 3MDT multi-color microcrystalline dielectric dimming technology realizes core three-dimensional adjustment technology and fully addresses the shortcomings of previous technological paths. It achieves a major breakthrough with synchronized, high-definition, low-haze, continuously variable adjustment, true black, true privacy, high insulation, and millisecond-level fast speed. Additionally, Astrace’s ongoing R&D on electro-luminescent active display technology is expected to elevate the dimension further, enabling deep synergy between glass display and cabin ambience. Liu Fengxi also emphasized that the implementation of smart glass depends on ecosystem collaboration: automakers, glass factories, smart film developers, raw material suppliers, automotive electronics, and software algorithm companies must coordinate to form a closed loop “from technology R&D to industrial implementation.”
4. Astrace’s Deep Cultivation: Twenty-Two Years of Technological Accumulation, Building the Smart Film “Innovation Engine”
As an industry pioneer, Astrace Group started its layout as early as 2003. Over twenty-two years, the company progressed from “1.0 improving traditional glass functions” (launching functional window films), to “2.0 enhancing glass added value” (developing negative-ion antibacterial films), and then to “3.0 redefining glass” (OMTD OPTOELECTRONIC MAPPING TRANSPARENT DISPLAY optical-effect display film, 3MDT multi-color microcrystalline dielectric dimming film, ATDF electro-luminescent active display film, etc.). Astrace has built a full-industry capability covering “new film materials + optoelectronic display + intelligent control.”
In R&D, Astrace’s investment is industry-leading: it formed a research team centered on Dr. Wu Wei, a national-level high-end talent, with more than a dozen doctoral and master’s degree researchers covering core fields such as liquid crystals, polymers, and semiconductors. The R&D system and equipment investment exceed RMB 20 million, establishing closed-loop development architectures including key materials R&D labs and environmental weathering laboratories. Astrace has already obtained dozens of patents for optoelectronic films and dimming films, and expects its high-quality patent count to exceed 100 by the end of 2025. It also conducts joint R&D with overseas institutions in the U.S. and Japan and domestic top universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Fudan University to ensure technological leadership.
On industrial implementation, Astrace Group has also achieved remarkable results: in 2022 it completed the acquisition of Dalian Wodukos, achieving an industrialization breakthrough in optoelectronic film technology; in the same year it reached front-loading OEM cooperation with GAC Trumpchi, promoting smart film into mass production. The completion of the Shanghai Optoelectronic Display Intelligent Manufacturing Base and the Huzhou, Zhejiang optoelectronic film production base builds a complete R&D, production, and delivery system to automotive-grade standards, greatly advancing the industrialization and broad application of optoelectronic smart films.
Currently, the “transparency + intelligence” transformation of automotive cabins is irreversible. Driven by Astrace Group and other enterprises, the future where “every pane of glass is a smart terminal” is accelerating.
“Astrace’s mission is to make every space more comfortable, healthier, safer, and smarter through film protection,” Liu Fengxi said. Astrace will continue to open its technology and resources, collaborate with industry partners to drive iteration in the smart glass industry, and help upgrade automotive cabins from “functional spaces” to “smart experiential carriers.”
