As automotive manufacturing winds down in Australia, Adelaide scientist Colin Hall has created a car mirror for export.

He has won the inaugural Prime Minister's Prize for New Innovators after developing a plastic car mirror that is now being exported to the United States.

Dr Hall said he has loved tinkering with different materials and solving problems for as long as he can remember.

"I'm a nerd at heart," he said.

"I love playing with materials, making those materials, maybe do something that they're not conventionally allowed to do."

The plastic car mirror in the lab. ( ABC News: Nicola Gage )

That passion led him to creating a new process that allows manufacturers to replace traditional materials like glass with lighter, more efficient materials.

Its first commercial success has been in the car industry where job losses in Australia have become all too frequent.

Conventional glass in vehicles poses problems because it is heavy and can break, so Dr Hall and his team set out to develop a new product.

A combination of five layers of materials sprayed on top of the plastic created the advanced manufacturing product, which is niche and in demand across the globe.

"It's shatter-proof, low-vibration, we can mould it into quite complex shapes," Dr Hall said.

"We knew what target we had to set and we just worked towards it and spent three years developing the coating so that it would pass those tests."

Jobs created in Adelaide as car manufacturing winds down

Dr Hall said the process had been long but rewarding.

"The first idea to start with was fairly easy, making it work was very hard," he said.

"We almost ran out of the Greek alphabet in number of prototypes before we got one that was up to scratch."

Car makers have long searched for ways to reduce the body weight of vehicles and the car-wing mirror design weighs a fraction of the conventional glass product.

Colin Hall says he hopes to develop more products from the new material. ( ABC News: Nicola Gaga )

In five years, 1.6 million of them have been exported to the United States to be used in a Ford truck.

"We hope to be able to roll out this technology, doorhandles, grills, badges or even the wing-mirror housing as well," Dr Hall said.

The product is being made by SMR Automotive Australia in Adelaide's south, which has created 20 jobs.

And while that kind of number cannot compete with those that will be lost when Holden closes next year, Dr Hall believes investing in more niche, innovative products is how South Australia can still compete in global manufacturing.

"A lot of other countries can make cars and it's very competitive in that environment," he said.

"If we can make items or show technologies that no-one else can do, then we can compete on technology."



Dr Hall is among a group being recognised for their work in science for the Prime Minister's Science Awards.