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The Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is now accepting nominations for its 54th annual Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, the oldest and largest recognition event in the automotive and plastics industries. Originally established in 1970, this year’s Awards Gala will be held Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 at the Laurel Manor in Livonia, Michigan. 

Innovation Award winners will be selected in 10 different categories, and the teams that developed them will be honored with a “Most Innovative Use of Plastics” award. Categories include: Aftermarket and Limited Edition/Specialty Vehicles, Body Exterior, Body Interior, Chassis/Hardware, Electric and Autonomous Vehicle Systems, Sustainability, Materials, Power Train, Process/Assembly/Enabling Technologies, and Safety. One “Grand Award” winner will be chosen from the winning teams from all category award winners. The Innovation Award nominations are due by Sept. 13, 2025.

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SPE is also accepting nominations for its Hall of Fame (HOF) awards, with those nominations due by May 31, 2025. These awards recognize those who have made significant and lasting contributions to the application of plastics in automotive vehicles. Additional criteria for an HOF award is that the nomination be: game-changing; very successful worldwide; innovative in materials, process and application; and still being used. The HOF committee consists of engineers, managers, executives, technical experts, SPE fellows, SPE honored service members and automotive industry technical experts who have served at least 30-plus years in the industry.

Nominations must be submitted .

“Plastics are driving cutting-edge innovations in electric transportation, powering advancements across electric, autonomous and next-generation mobility solutions,” says Jeffrey Helms, global automotive director at Celanese Corp. and returning 2025 SPE Automotive Innovation Awards chair. “With this year's theme, ‘Leading the Charge,’ we emphasize the vital role plastics play in enabling, enhancing and advancing all mobility applications and power trains. We are excited to celebrate another year of groundbreaking achievements and continue our tradition of recognizing the industry’s most significant advancements in automotive plastics.”

Since 1970, the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Competition has highlighted the positive changes that polymeric materials have brought to automotive and ground transportation industries, such as weight and cost reduction, parts consolidation, increased safety, and enhanced aesthetics and design freedom. At the time the competition started in 1970, many OEM designers and engineers thought of plastics as inexpensive replacements for more traditional materials. To help communicate that plastics were capable of far more functionality than their typical use as decorative knobs and ashtrays indicated, members of the board of directors of SPE’s Automotive Division created the competition to recognize successful and innovative plastics applications, and to communicate their benefits to OEMs, media and the public. 

Over the years, the competition drew attention to plastics as an underutilized design tool and made industry aware of more progressive ways of designing, engineering and manufacturing automotive components. From its humble beginnings, the competition has grown to be a very contested recognition events in the automotive and plastics industries. Today, polymeric materials are no longer substitutes for more expensive materials, but are rather the materials of choice in hundreds of different applications throughout the vehicle. Without plastics, many of the auto industry’s most common comfort, control and safety applications would not be possible.

During the competition phase of the event, dozens of teams made up of OEMs and suppliers work to hone submission forms and presentations describing their part, system or complete vehicle module to support claims that it is the year’s “Most Innovative Use of Plastics.” To win, teams must survive a precompetition review and two rounds of presentations before industry and media judges.

There is no cost to nominate parts, however, nominations which are accepted into the competition need to be presented (in person or via webinar) by their nominating teams to the SPE Automotive Divivision’s Board of Directors during the first round of Automotive Innovation Awards Competition judging, which will be held Sept. 25 - 26, 2025, at Celanese Corp. in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Finalists from that round advance to a second presentation before a panel of Blue Ribbon judges made up of media, retired chief engineers and other industry experts on Oct. 3, 2025  — again at Celanese Corp.

Winners of each category, the Grand Award, Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement winner will all be honored during the Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on Nov. 5, 2025. This annual event typically draws more than 800 OEM engineers, automotive and plastics industry executives, and media. Funds raised from the event are used to support SPE educational programs (such as technical seminars and conferences), which help educate and secure the role of plastics in the advancement of the automobile. For more information, visit .

The mission of SPE is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics worldwide and to educate industry, academia and the public about these advances. is active in educating, promoting, recognizing and communicating technical accomplishments in all phases of plastics and plastic-based composite developments in the global transportation industry. Topic areas include applications, materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design and development.