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This first edition report focuses on the drivers behind lightweighting including consumer behavior, government legislation and advances in technology. It considers primary and secondary weight reduction and explores how the different OEMs and their supply base are tackling lightweighting for the various product groups including chassis and suspension, body, powertrain, closures and interiors etc.
Furthermore, the report provides a historic perspective, considers cost implications and includes a detailed section on materials technology, including, steel, aluminium, magnesium, titanium, plastics, carbon fibre, textiles, recycling and joining technology.
Background to this Research
The issue of vehicle lightweighting has been high on the agenda of the automotive industry for many years, and there have been many successes in terms of individual components and systems that weigh less than their predecessors. However, the issue has now been bought further into focus by a combination of conditions:
• The imposition of increasingly stringent greenhouse gas regulation;
• The reduction in opportunity for further fuel efficiency gains through other more
cost effective means;
• The continuing and relentless demand for additional systems and
features that add to vehicle mass;
• The enhanced importance of lightweighting to vehicles with alternative
powertrains (non-ICE); and
• The reduction in engineering and commercial risk associated with developing
alternative materials technologies.
This report examines the critical issue of lightweighting as one of the areas of automotive technology with a wealth of potential for increasing vehicle efficiency.
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