The 36^th international congress Plastics in Automotive Engineering will be organised by VDI Wissensforum in cooperation with VDI Society for Plastics Technologies from 21 – 22 March 2012 in Mannheim, Germany. This high quality event is widely recognised as “the” meeting-place for the automotive industry. It features a technical conference and a trade exhibition by raw material producers, manufacturers of plastic processing machines, plastics processors, and system suppliers. The conference provides a comprehensive overview of current developments in plastics at the German manufacturers of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Car manufacturers, such as Audi, BMW, Daimler, Evobus, Ford, MAN, Opel, Porsche, Renault, and VW, will discuss which plastics and plastics-specific processing technologies have found their way into current component applications. In addition to exiting plenary lectures, next year's event will take up the subject of illumination and plastics separately.