You will notice that the shift to aluminum is happening because of
regulation mandate. Anyone who is familiar with aluminum alloys
knows that all the steel in a car can be readily replaced with those
alloys. The weight saving is huge. That five hundred pounds of
aluminum is replacing fifteen hundred pounds of steel. Add in the
replacement of much of the shell with plastic based material as has
already done and the combined weight saving is huge.
My first point is that this was all doable when I was a teenager and
getting rid of half the weight easily doubles mileage. Thus shifting
from 35 mpg to 55 mpg is a matter of getting the weight out once and
for all. It is obviously a bit of a challenge from an engineering
point of view but it is certainly doable.
What it took was a regulatory mandate that put everyone on the same
page in terms of the end game. The vehicles are naturally going to
be more expensive and much longer lasting in foul conditions. All
this means a significant shift in the business model.
The second point is this also sets the stage for the rise of the EV.
There weight will continue to matter and starting with a low base is
an excellent way to get serious range out of a battery charge.
This is all part of the ongoing automotive revolution that is
presently underway as the industry shifts itself into a future that
will no longer have much to do with hydrocarbons and a lot to do with
battery life.
Aluminum doors,
frames: Auto industry's next frontier
"It's an
unprecedented time in the aluminum industry," says an Alcoa
director. "Automakers are reacting to increases in fuel economy
requirements and regulations. Every major market around the world is
tightening fuel standards."
"We have every
car maker calling us, wanting to increase their aluminum content,
wanting to start new R&D (research and development) projects
about how they can convert bodies from steel to aluminum, wanting to
convert hoods and doors from steel to aluminum."
German auto maker BMW
(BMWG.DE) has steadily been increasing its use of the metal in recent
years.
(Reuters) - The global
push to improve fuel efficiency in vehicle fleets will more than
double the demand for aluminum in the auto market by 2025, Alcoa's
(AA.N) director of automotive marketing said Wednesday.
Car makers from BMW to
Audi have already started to react to the so-called Corporate Average
Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and are beginning to move away from
heavier steel body frames to lighter-weight material in what should
be the "next frontier" for the aluminum industry, Randall
Scheps told delegates at the American Metal Market's Aluminum Summit
in New York.
"Car makers
are basically reacting to increases in fuel economy requirements and
regulations. Every major market around the world is tightening fuel
standards," Scheps said.
"We have every
car maker calling us, wanting to increase their aluminum content,
wanting to start new R&D (research and development) projects
about how they can convert bodies from steel to aluminum, wanting to
convert hoods and doors from steel to aluminum."
German auto maker BMW
(BMWG.DE) has steadily been increasing its use of the metal in recent
years.
"It's an
unprecedented time in the aluminum industry, and car bodies are the
next frontier," Scheps said.
He anticipated this
transition from steel-bodied frames to lighter-weighted aluminum to
more than double the industrial metal's overall rate of consumption
in the auto market from 11.5 million tons in 2011 to 24.8 million
tons by 2025.
By then, the amount of
aluminum in an average car will grow from the current 343 lbs to 550
lbs.
In order to support
this automotive demand growth, Alcoa has invested $300 million in
expansion projects at its Davenport, Iowa rolled products plant.
"That's the next
phase of capacity to serve the automotive market, and the forecasts
we are looking at now shows that this phase will be full by 2015,"
Scheps said.
In the U.S., President
Obama increased the CAFE standard from a target of 35.5 miles per
gallon in 2016 to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, which was initially
met with a lot of criticism from many automakers worried about rising
costs and sticker-shocked customers.
But that resistance
now appears to be fading.
"In the move to
54.5 mpg, the consumer is going to have to pay for a lot of things
... turbo chargers cost money, direct injection costs money, 8-speed
transmissions cost money, and the aluminum will cost money, so what
the automakers are doing are making this trade-off of what's the best
bang for their buck in investing to improve fuel economy,"
Scheps said.
"If they can
optimize the power-train together with the weight of the car, that
gives them the best return."
Scheps also said
competition from composite materials such as plastics and metals like
titanium are "not going to happen in the near future".
"They are not
compatible with the existing manufacturing infrastructure, too
expensive, not recyclable, do not perform well in a crash and the
manufacturing cycle time is too long.
"The consumer is
never choosing one material over the other, they are choosing a
full-sized car that gets a certain gas mileage," he said.
This article is full of repetitive paragraphs, contradictions, and unsupported statements. The claim that composites are too expensive, not strong enough, and therefore will not be used extensively is untrue. I assume this comes from the aluminium industry. They must be owned by the same people who own the auto and steel industry. The transition to composites will come by new auto makers if government will stop protecting the established makers. If not for government it would have come two decades ago.
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