Aluminum

Today, aluminum is helping automakers design and manufacture cleaner, safer, better performing cars, SUVs, minivans and pickups that use less fuel and produce fewer emissions. By reducing vehicle weight, horsepower requirements correspondingly are reduced, leading to lighter, more affordable powertrains and vehicles that pay consumers back quicker (thanks to improved fuel economy and fewer trips to the pump).

With nearly four decades of steady growth, automotive aluminum plays an increasing role in making lighter, more fuel efficient vehicles. This high strength, low weight metal also offers superior crash protection. Studies confirm that size, not weight is more important for automotive safety. Aluminum can help automakers produce large cars and trucks for safety and consumer preference, but lighten them at the same time to boost environmental performance. Lighter cars also accelerate faster, and have better handling – which is why many high-performance vehicle manufacturers, like Audi and Jaguar, rely on aluminum.

 
Doug Richman, Executive and Technical Committee Member – the Aluminum Association’s Aluminum Transportation Group and Vice President of Engineering at Kaiser Aluminum, discusses the future of aluminum in the automobile industry.

Delivers more fuel efficient and environmental-friendly cars and light trucks

  • Plug-in electric vehicles can benefit when upgrading traditional steel to an advanced aluminum body structure, cutting battery and stored energy requirements by 10 percent and saving up to $3,000 per vehicle.
  • Consumers can get a 5 to 7 percent vehicle fuel economy improvement for every 10 percent weight reduction by substituting high-strength, low-weight aluminum for heavier steel.
  • Both aluminum-structured hybrids and aluminum-bodied diesels deliver a more than 13 percent increase in fuel economy when compared to steel-bodied hybrids and diesel vehicles.
  • Lightweighting the world’s transportation fleet through the use of aluminum has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 660 million tons annually, or nearly 9 percent of global, transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Each pound of aluminum replacing two pounds of iron or steel in a car can save a net 20 pounds of CO2 emissions over the typical lifecycle of a vehicle.
  • The aluminum industry cut CO2 factory emissions by 86 percent from 1990 to 2006.
  • Almost 90 percent of automotive aluminum is recovered and recycled. It is infinitely recyclable and uses only 5 percent of the original energy required to put it back into a reusable form.
  • Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum produced since 1888 is still in use today. That’s about 580 million tons.

Improves safety and maximizes vehicle performance

  • Pound for pound, automotive aluminum absorbs two times the energy in a crash compared to steel.
  • Aluminum can be designed to fold predictably during a crash, allowing the vehicle – not its passengers – to absorb destructive crash forces.
  • The high strength-to-weight ratio of aluminum allows a vehicle to maintain, or even increase, the size and strength of its critical front- and back-end crumple zones without increasing overall weight or sacrificing occupant safety. 
  • Aluminum improves vehicle performance creating lighter vehicles with higher structural stiffness that accelerate more quickly, provide better stability and response, and require shorter stopping distances than heavier vehicles.

Automotive aluminum use reaches 40-year high

  • Industry experts rank aluminum use as a top option and “very significant” to meet the federal mandate to improve fuel economy by 40 percent by 2020.
  • More than 50 vehicles produced in North America contain over 10 percent aluminum content and an estimated 67 vehicles from the European (49) and Japanese (18) markets now contain more than 400 pounds of finished aluminum.
  • Engine blocks and steering knuckles celebrated the largest increase in growth from 2006 to 2009. Nearly half of all 2009 models have at least one pair of aluminum steering knuckles.
  • Aluminum anti-lock braking system housings were on 85 percent of 2009 vehicles.
  • The integration of aluminum in cars and light trucks is projected to be nearly 11 percent of curb weight by 2020.

More information on automotive aluminum is available at www.aluminumintransportation.org.